Sacrifices worth it for Pascoe
At a glance
Sophie Pascoe will keep Christmas festivities to a minimum this year.
Such is life as a top-level athlete in training during this period. She admits she will be ‘‘a bit of a loner’’.
But the Kiwi para swimming sensation is confident it will all be worth it come the Commonwealth Games in April.
On Thursday, Pascoe headlined the 19-strong aquatics team, including two divers, announced to represent New Zealand on the Gold Coast. At 24, she is the most experienced on the team.
Currently in the hardest block of her training programme, the nine-time Paralympic champion has the ‘‘luxury’’ of Christmas Day off.
But other than that, it will be strictly business as she sets about defending the 100m breaststroke and 200m IM titles she won at Glasgow three years ago.
‘‘This year’s going to be a lot more challenging to previous years,’’ Pascoe told Stuff.
‘‘[My family] are going to be away and I’m going to be a little bit of a loner this Christmas. But I do have my nana, aunty and uncle, so I’ll spend the day with them.
‘‘It’s a really hard phase at the moment but this is my life, this is how much I want it and sometimes we have to make these sacrifices.’’
Pascoe will not just be racking up the laps, though.
The Christchurch swimmer has spent the last five weeks mixing up her training by adding different sports to her regime, such as rock climbing, tennis and even roller blading.
It is all part of the plan to keep her fresh and focused before the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
‘‘I’ve been in this sport now for 16 years, and just over 10 years internationally, so it’s a long time. Then you think of how many laps we do in a two-hour session twice a day, it can get a little boring at times,’’ she said.
Para sport events are integrated and contested as part of the main programme at the Commonwealth Games. Pascoe will be joined by fellow Rio Paralympians Jesse Reynolds and Tupou Neiufi on the Gold Coast, as well Chris Arbuthnott and Celyn Edwards.
Twelve able-bodied swimmers have earned selection and Swimming New Zealand will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing Rio Olympics, where no Kiwis made an A final.
Olympians Bradlee Ashby and Corey Main lead the medal prospects after both stood out at the 2017 FINA World Championships. Ashby broke his own 200m individual medley national record and Main set two personal bests to make the final of the 100m backstroke.
There will also be plenty of interest in the recently crowned Ma¯ori Sportswoman of the year, Australian-based 16-year old Laticia-Leigh Transom.
In her first international outing at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas, she won two golds (4x200m freestyle mixed relay, girls 200m freestyle), two silvers (girls 100m freestyle, 4x100m medley mixed relay) and a bronze medal (girls 50m freestyle).
Meanwhile, Olympian Lizzie Cui (1m women’s springboard) will join Glasgow Commonwealth Games diver Liam Stone ( 3m men’s springboard).