LONDON ? Her feet and ankles might ache constantly, even forcing her into a limp at times.
But Summer Mortimer knows how to make a pool deck entrance ? wear a big, wide smile, give a couple of fist pumps and ?Whoo! Hoo!? shrieks and stride to your lane with a sense of purpose that says you own the pool.
?Yes!? she said when that notion was put to her Friday evening after the Ancaster, Ont., native won her first Paralympic gold medal by capturing the S10 50-metre freestyle and breaking her own world record in the process. ?I like to have fun. Going into worlds, I didn?t realize there was cameramen, so I stuck my tongue out at them. Ever since then, I figure I may as well have fun with it.?
She?s having fun, alright. But the triple world record holder also looks like she?s trying to send a message to the other competitors in her class.
?Maybe subconsciously. I don?t mean too, but this is my favorite event, so I guess there could be some underlying arrogance about that from previous years. I just wanted to be relaxed, enjoy the moment and get my hand to the wall first.?
She did that in the one-lap race, touching in 28.10 seconds, .14 ahead of second-place Sophie Pascoe of New Zealand and .07 faster than she swam at the Paralympic trials in Montreal in April.
Mortimer, 19, admitted to an emotion-releasing cry before Thursday?s 200-metre invididual medley in which she finished second behind Pascoe?s world record swim. On Friday, her pre-race emotion was more anger.
?I was a bit annoyed, actually. I wanted this race so bad, I was mad at anyone who was going to take it from me. I think that worked as good motivation ? no nerves, just pure hardcore determination.?
That attribute has been Mortimer?s calling card ever since a terrible accident in November, 2008.
Just months after failing to qualify for the Beijing Olympics as a 15-year-old, Mortimer was on a mini-trampoline when she bounced 15 feet into the air and missed the sponge pit. She landed on the corner of a cement pad, shattering virtually all the bones in her feet.
Doctors initially thought they might have to amputate and then later said she?d never walk again. Mortimer, who spent six months in a wheelchair and another 18 on crutches defied that prediction.
But with six screws and a plate in her right foot and two more in her left, her ankles are constantly sore and will occasionally lock up and curtail her training. That allows her to compete in the S10 class for those with minimum physical disability.
Mortimer said she?s heard able-bodied swimmers call Paralympic swimming a joke. It annoys her.
?I know I shouldn?t care what people think, what people say, but it hits home. Anyone who said it doesn?t hurt them or impact them, they?re lying.
?Being here, meeting all these people made me realize I am so incredibly grateful for every experience I?ve had as a result of my accident. I don?t know if this is part of the journey I was supposed to walk in life, but I wouldn?t take it back for the world.?
?For the able-bodied people at home watching, I hope they gain some respect for me again because, really, the Paralympics are so much harder than the able-bodied side of sport. I know from first hand. It?s way harder.?
Canada also collected two silver medals in the pool Friday. Nathan Stein of Maple Ridge, B.C., was second in the men?s S10 50-metre freestyle and Calgary native Brianna Nelson, who now lives in Victoria, was second in the women?s S7 50-metre butterfly.
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