AFTER swimming a personal best in the girls’ 12-13 year old MC 50 metre freestyle at the recent National Championships, s6 swimmer Gemma Cook not only placed third, receiving her first ever national bronze medal, but she has qualified with a MCPS score for Swimming Victoria Performance Pathways Program – Emerging Abilities Squad.
Her coach Lorri is so proud of her efforts.
“Gemma trains so hard and has been really working on some small changes with her technique and it has made a great difference. I was so thrilled to be a part of her nationals success and hear she was accepted for the Performance Pathways program,” she said.
Gemma is the second South Gippsland Bass (SGB) swimmer to be selected in one of the current Performance Pathways squads, with Archie Smyth in the Victorian Junior Talent Pathway Squad.
The Emerging Abilities Squad is a dedicated program for multi-class swimmers (s1-14) working towards Paralympics and World Championships, Deaflympics (s15) and Virtus Games (s19).
Gemma will attend dedicated multiclass training sessions in Melbourne and extra coaching sessions on stroke from Paralympic coaches, diet and other aspects of competing at a higher level like a filmed biomechanics session in a VIS pool and mentoring from current Paralympians.
Gemma has been training with SGB for three years and is part of the growing multi-class squads.
She loves being part of the multi-class program at the higher level, where she gets to compete against others in the same classification as her.
There are so many opportunities and pathways for multi-class swimmers – from all levels of school swimming competitions, local Gippsland Championships, Country Victoria, State and National Championships, where Gemma has participated in them all.
