Duck poo, paddling pools on swimmers' road to Tokyo

TOKYO • For swimming purists, the Tokyo Olympics has been a "slow" meet, with only two world records broken so far - but that is hardly surprising given the pandemic-enforced disruptions the highly tuned athletes have faced.

Coronavirus restrictions closed pools across much of the globe for long periods during lockdowns, forcing swimmers to adopt unorthodox training methods to stay in shape.

Participants have revealed how they braved bug-infested ponds and used paddling pools to keep alive their dreams of competing at the Games in Japan.

US freestyle swimmer Erica Sullivan recalled how she trained in drought-hit Lake Mead near Las Vegas on her way to winning a silver medal in the 1,500m freestyle at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Wednesday.

"There was just duck poop everywhere and it was murky and a solid brown-green on a good day," she said. "It was just gross. We were getting duck mites, apparently they like to eat ducks' poop and they like still water. We'd get in the water and we were covered in bites. It was nasty. It built character. I'm funnier because of it."

Australia's Zac Stubblety-Cook powered to a gold in the 200m breaststroke yesterday despite being unable to access the state-of-the-art facilities in his home town of Brisbane for three months.

"It was an interesting time, we were still trying to do all we could. I was training in the garage with a stationary bike, that's what we had for a couple of months. It was humbling," he said.

Another Australian, Brendon Smith, donned a wetsuit and went for dawn swims in the ocean with his sister during the Melbourne winter in choppy waters that were so cold it gave the pair blinding headaches.

"I have gone through hell to get here," Smith told reporters after winning bronze in the men's 400m individual medley on Sunday.

At the other extreme, Holland's Sharon van Rouwendaal set herself up with a tiny inflatable pool in the backyard, tethering herself to a pole with an elastic bungee cord to create a cut-price infinity pool.

"There's always a solution, you just have to get creative!" the backstroke swimmer posted on social media at the time.

Britain's Matthew Richards, a gold medallist in Wednesday's 4x200m freestyle relay, hit upon a similar idea when he bought a flat-pack pool that was one-metre deep when fully assembled in the garden.

"We attached some bungee cords to the garage wall and he was in there swimming hour after hour in his wetsuit... keeping a feel for the water," Richards' father Simon told the BBC, describing lockdown as "a really difficult time" for the swimmer.

Richards' teammate Tom Dean, who also won the 200m freestyle on Tuesday, had his training disrupted by two bouts of coronavirus.

"It's unheard of. When I was sitting in my flat in isolation, an Olympic gold seemed a million miles off, but here we are," he said.

Dean needed time to recover from the illness before he could resume high-intensity training.

"Because of the nature of the disease, you can't go straight back into full training," he said. "It was tough, it was a very bumpy ride."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE