The excitement of coaching at the Paris Paralympics may come later. Until then, Marc-Andre Pelletier has other things on his mind.
He wants to avoid any problems getting wheelchairs on the transportation like there was at the Tokyo Paralympics. He wants to make sure his athletes are prepared physically and mentally. He even hopes there’s some variety in the food at the athlete’s village.
“I’m not excited, I’m focused on the task,” said Pelletier, who has been head coach at the Club de Natation Region de Quebec in Quebec City since 2004. “We need to be prepared.
“I’m lucky because all my swimmers, it’s not their first one. So, we have experience with that.”
Pelletier is one of the Swimming Canada coaches attending the Paris Paralympic. During his career Pelletier has been on the staff at Olympics, world championships, Pan Pacific Championships, Commonwealth Games and FISU Games.
He learned some lessons from his first Paralympics in Tokyo.
“This is not always the best competition,” he said. “We need to be best that day. It’s about racing and winning the race because you need to be tough.
“The schedule is harder, we have more interviews, the transportation is harder than the world championships where you have your own bus.”
The growth in the number of people watching the Paralympics also means more scrutiny. That, combined with more social media, isn’t always a good mix.
“There’s more tension,” said Pelletier.
He remembers at Tokyo the negative emails and comments Aurelie Rivard, of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., received after finishing third in the 50-metre freestyle on the opening day of competition.
“For one day it was really hard,” said Pelletier. “We learned from that experience. Be focused on the task, shut out as much as you can the communication with outside.”
Rivard rebounded by winning gold and setting world records in the 100-m and 400-m S10 freestyle. She heads to Paris having won 10 medals at three Paralympics.
Pelletier was a competitive swimmer when he was young. He started as a part-time coach in 1996 and graduated from university in 2001.
He said the search for performance is what attracted him to coaching.
During his career Pelletier has coached Olympic athletes like three-time Olympian Katerine Savard and Sarah Mailhot a member of the 2012 Paralympic team.
Besides Rivard, Pelletier will also be coaching Paralympic veterans like Abi Tripp, of Kingston, Ont., Alec Elliot of Kitchener, Ont., and Nicolas-Guy Turbide of Quebec City.
Injuries and the advancement of some of the athletes’ impairments has meant changes to their training regimes.
“It’s a way to reinvent their swim,” said Pelletier. “Sometimes we know if we continue to do the same (thing), we’re going to get the same level. If we want to reach another kind of level, we need to find some adjustments. Small changes make all the difference in the end.”
Tripp, 23, was born with cerebral palsy then, at age 17, was diagnosed with dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions leading to possible sudden and un-planned movements in the arm or legs.
Elliot, 28, has a condition called syndactyly, which affects the development of his hands and feet, limiting their functionality.
Turbide, 27, who is visually impaired, used to swim backstroke. Due to a back injury, he now concentrates on the 50-m freestyle. At the 2023 Para Swimming Championships in Manchester, Turbide earned a bronze medal in the 50-metre freestyle S13 and set a Canadian record.
Rivard, who was born without her left hand, joined Pelletier’s club in January 2020 after spending time at the High Performance Centre - Quebec.
This year Pelletier had the 28-year-old do some of her training with Olympic stream athletes to get used to having people faster than her in the water.
“It was good for her,” he said. “She got to see how she reacted.”
As a coach, Pelletier’s goal is to give his swimmers the chance to reach their best potential.
“My goal is to reach their best optimal performance,” he said. “You’ll never be 100 per cent, no one is going to get there.
“But my goal is to be as close and be as fast as they can go with their body and their tools.”