Sloan eager for Paralympic trials
Mt. St. Mary’s frosh, Westminster resident set to compete in June
When Hannah Sloan joined the swim team at Mount St. Mary’s, there was much for the Westminster resident and Winters Mill graduate to grasp. The same could be said for the Mountaineers.
Sloan, a freshman who turned 20 on April 20, is the program’s first para swimmer, a branch of athletics performed by those with physical and intellectual disabilities. Sloan, who has had ataxic cerebral palsy since birth, has had to adapt to her new setting as much as her teammates and coaches have had to adjust to her.
“It’s just a learning experience,” said assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Marissa Frollo, who has spent considerable time with Sloan. “I’ve never coached para before. So it was mainly Hannah helping me out a lot of the time and me learning about that kind of stuff and what worked for her and what worked for us.”
For her part, Sloan said she is even more grateful for committing to Mount St. Mary’s in February 2020.
“The campus is beautiful, and the team is great,” she said. “I love all of my coaches. It’s great.”
Sloan will represent the Mountaineers at the 2020 U.S. Paralympic Team Trials in Minneapolis on June 17-20 after qualifying for the 100-meter backstroke in the S10 classification. Among the five events in which she competed at the Para World Series in Lewisville, Texas, on April15-17,Sloancompletedthe100backstroke in a personal-best time of 1:27.38, finishing fifth.
“I’msuperexcited,”shesaidofearningaspot at the Paralympic Trials. “I can’t wait.”
Mount St. Mary’s head coach Neil Yost, who accompanied Sloan to the Para World Series, said many of her teammates asked to be apprisedofherscheduleandwatchedherraces
via the event’s livestream.
“Just like any other member of the team, if you made a Trials cut or an NCAA cut, it’s a big accomplishment,” he said. “As an entire team, I know that they’re proud of what she has accomplished individually, and I know everybody is happy to have contributed to that process.”
Sloan has defied the odds to reach this stage. She was born in Syracuse, New York, at 27 weeks, far shy of the typical gestation period of 40 weeks. She weighed 1 pound, 15 ounces, and was half of a set of twins. Her twin, William, did not survive.
Mark Sloan, Hannah’s father, said his wife, Lisa, underwent a cesarean section because Hannah’s heart rate dropped after each contraction. It turned out that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Hannah’s throat and that William was blocking the opening and may have saved Hannah’s life.
Even at that age, however, Sloan said he witnessed his daughter’s determination.
“She was in the NICU for about two months, and even then, she fought through
it pretty quick,” he recalled. “She was only about 4 pounds when she went home.”
Ataxic cerebral palsy is a type of cerebral palsy impairing balance and coordination. Hannah Sloan said physical activity when she was younger proved troublesome.
“When I was little, running and jumping were very hard for me,” she said. “I’ve just learned to live with it and compensate for it. It’s been getting a lot better. It’s definitely hard on the coordination, but I’ve just learned to push through it.”
Mark Sloan said he and his wife decided to get their daughter swim lessons when she was “4 or 5 years old” rather than risk an injury in another sport.
“When she was young, she would literally lose her balance and fall for no reason,” he said. “And any kind of sport where there were multiple people running around, her trying to change direction was a little bit dangerous. But at least in the water, it was much safer.”
When the family moved to Westminster in 2012, Hannah Sloan joined Merritt Swimming. Few people knew about her condition until head coach Andrew Barranco caught her when she lost her balance trying to step onto a block. Informed by family of her ataxia cerebral palsy, Barranco suggested Sloan compete in para swimming.
At her first para meet, the Bill Keating Jr. Memorial Cincinnati Para Swimming Open on May 12-13, 2018, Hannah Sloan won the 50 breast stroke, the 100 backstroke, and the 200 and 400 freestyle. Her winning time in the 400 freestyle was nearly 20 seconds faster than the runner-up’s.
“When she came to the wall, she looked back and no one was near her,” Mark Sloan said. “She was wondering, ‘Did I forget a lap?’ But she had finished ahead of them so fast.”
Because of the ataxia cerebral palsy, Hannah Sloan’s times are slower than those of able-bodied swimmers. But that did not dissuade Yost from offering her a spot at Mount St. Mary’s.
“I’m one of those people that is willing to adapt and change and do something different,” he said. “So that part didn’t bother me right from the start. Honestly, we look at a lot of grades and personality fit first more than anything else, and she met both of those things easily.”
To ease Sloan’s transition, the coaches adjusted her workouts to match her physical prowess. For example, while others needed to swim eight laps in the Knott Arena’s 25-meter pool to complete a 200, Sloan was asked to finish six laps. Gradually, Sloan developed the speed and stamina to increase her regimen.
Yost said the coaches have worked with Sloan on her head and body positioning in the water to reduce drag and her positioning as she nears a wall to gain stronger push-offs on her flip turns.
“Athletically, she’s just gotten faster,” he said. “She did a really good job of just working on a couple of small things that we would ask her to do to be more efficient within her disability. I think that has allowed her to be more efficient with her swimming, which allows her to be faster for a longer period of time. That’s where we’re really getting the time drops for her.”