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Brown University varsity swimmer, Jess, started swimming at the age of thirteen. She says she had always loved the sport. The first time her parents took her to a swim meet for swimmers ith disabilities, “There were prosthetic limbs everywhere,” she remembers. “But afterwards we got used to it.”
“At first, I was scared about how my teammates would react, but they didn’t bat an eye"
For our blind swimming experiment, we simulated blindness by putting white duct tape in the lenses of swimming goggles so that nothing could be perceived other than the brightness of the room. Although lane lines are used for competitive blind swimming we chose to swim without lane lines to see just how much being unable to see affects our swimming. For safety, we had a spotter swimming along with our blindfolded swimmer, and when our swimmer neared a wall or reared off course the spotter would tap them on the shoulder and warn them that they were approaching a wall.
Swimming blind was a unique experience, especially from the perspective of athletes who normally rely on tracking the black line at the bottom of the pool to gauge where they are. It requires a lot of proprioceptive awareness to stay on course, and more than ever we were able to notice the imbalances in our stroke based on where we tended to veer. Without tracking our progress visually, we instead had to focus on how the water felt while moving through it, which added a level of mindfulness to the sport and provided a fresh new perspective for our seasoned swimmers.
ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT
JESSICA HARPER | BROWN UNIVERSITY
HOMETOWN: LONDON, UK
EVENTS: 50 &100-YARD FREESTYLE, 100-YARD BUTTERFLY
CLASSIFICATION: S9
Upon coming to Brown, Jess has found the Brown community to be very accepting. “At first, I was scared about how my teammates would react, but they didn’t bat an eye, they were just like, ‘okay.’” The swim team has adaptive sets, but Jess does not use any device while swimming. Not that she needs it, either--Jess’s skill and talent cumulated into swimming in the 2012 Paralympic Trials. This experience, however, along with growing up in the UK, underscored different attitudes towards disabilities in the two countries. “Paralympic sports are given a lot more attention in the UK,” Jess remarked. “The UK had full coverage of the 2012 Paralympic Games while the US did not.”
When asked if she would like to see adaptive sports activities or clinics on campus, Jess said she definitely would, but on the stipulation that able-bodied people would be included as well. “Able-bodied people just watching people with disabilities play sports makes it seem that they are pitying them.” Jess said. “I’d like to see more integration in adaptive sports.”
BLINDFOLDED SWIMMING
OUR EXPERIENCE
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