The Province’s Kent Gilchrist continues his profiles of BC Paralympians today focusing on swimmer Donovan Tildesley who will compete in 5 different events in Beijing.
Donovan Tildesley swims like it’s a full-contact sport. You’ve heard of athletes who are so intense they are described as “sweating blood”? It’s not known if Donovan Tildesley, who was born without retinas, has perspired blood, but he has leaked it from his forehead and nose on occasion when his tapper — usually his father Hugh, or coach Craig McCord — has either missed letting him know the unyielding pool wall was looming, or he just didn’t feel the signal, a tap on the top of his head.
Tildesley will swim in five events at the Paralympics — the 50-, 100- and 400-metre free, as well as the 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke — so the potential for a real bloodbath is there.
“I’ve probably done it [smashed into the wall] three or four times,” said the remarkably well-adjusted Tildesley, who turned 24 in July.
Read the full article on Donovan here.
