Jonathan Dieleman, Quick resident and paralympic athlete is in Arizona training for the world paraplegic swimming championships, which will be held in Mexico City Sept. 20 to Oct. 6, 2017.
Dieleman, a professional paralympic swimmer, has been working on speed and fitness the past week to prepare him for competition.
After a motorcycle accident in May 2010, Dieleman was paralyzed from the chest down. Recently he has been financially supported by Monsters Industries and Sullivan Motor Products to do his training as a paraplegic athlete for the Canada Team.
“Yesterday’s practice wiped me out,” Dieleman said. “Mainly I am working on getting adjusted to altitude, speed, and fitness.”
This is the first time Dieleman has competed in the world championships, and says he hopes to make it on the podium.
“Hopefully I can put in the right work over the next two weeks to put myself in the best position to get a medal,” said Dieleman.
He will be competing in the 50 meter breast stroke and the 150 meter individual medley, which is a race with different strokes including breast stroke, freestyle, or back crawl.
“Most people swim butterfly as well in a 200 meter individual medley, but my lower classification has a hard time swimming fly,” Dieleman said.
“All my training is now geared toward giving me the best shot at making it to the podium if not a gold medal. I plan on getting right back to training [for the Japan paralympics in 2020] as soon as I come home from worlds,” he said.
On Aug. 4, to Aug. 7, 2017 Dieleman also participated in the Canadian Swimming Championships in Montreal, Quebec.
“[The Canadian Swimming Championships were] pretty good. Most of my times were alright, still ended up with two gold medals,” said Dieleman.
Dieleman swam 50 meters free style just 0.4 seconds off his best time, which he won gold in as well as gold in the 150 meter individual medley.
Since 2015 Dieleman has been competing as a swimmer winning silver at the Toronto Parapan American Games in the 50 meter breast stroke, and bronze in the four times 50 meter freestyle relay. Then in 2016 Dieleman competed at the Rio Paralympics placing fifth in the 50 meter breast stroke for the men’s group.
Though being away from his Northern roots can be difficult, Dieleman says his family is supportive and the people he works with on the Canadian Paralympic Team are too.
“There’s a lot of support from the training staff. It’s really neat to travel all the places I have over the last couple of years. Being away from family and home a lot gets a little trying, but my family is very supportive. Everywhere we go we meet people who like to talk to us about where we are from and asking what we do,” said Dieleman.
To follow and support Dieleman’s journey visit his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Jonathan-Dieleman-379955865671120/ or his Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/jonathandieleman/
