By Jim Morris

Looking back on it now, Tess Routliffe can chuckle as she gives a blunt assessment of her second race in her first major international Para-swimming competition last summer.

“I bombed the race,” Routliffe said, remembering 100-metre breaststroke at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. “I kind of got in the pool and flopped around.”

Routliffe learned a harsh lesson. A couple days later she won silver in the 200-m individual medley. A few weeks later, the dwarf who swims in the S7 category won five medals, four of them gold, at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto.

With improved confidence and an another layer of experience, the 17-year-old from Caledon, Ont., heads into this summer’s Paralympic Games in Rio de Janerio as a podium threat.

“I have developed a whole lot just going through these experiences,” said Routliffe. “There is a new outlook on everything. There’s the bigger swim meets, the people I met and the people I got to work with.

Routliffe’s best chances for a medal in Rio will be in the 200-m IM, 50-m freestyle and 100-m breaststroke. The Paralympic rookie knows there will be some nerves but her first appearances on the international stage last summer taught her how to cope.

“I don’t know how I am going to be feeling,” she said. “I can anticipate it’s going to be a lot like Worlds (but also) a lot more than Worlds, just because how big it is.

“I hope I can use my experience from Worlds and Pan Ams and bring it back and calm myself down.”

Routliffe was the very opposite of calm as she prepared to race in Glasgow. Smiling and happy on the outside, she churned with doubts and trepidation inside.

“At the start of the meet I was super nervous,” she remembers. “I was unstable. I didn’t know what I was doing.

“You walk in the first day training, you see the competition pool, you see all the athletes training. The first day of competition is a massive blow. For me, my nerves were insanely high the first few days.”

“You walk in the first day training, you see the competition pool, you see all the athletes training. The first day of competition is a massive blow. For me, my nerves were insanely high the first few days.”

— Tess Routliffe

Routliffe credits the Swimming Canada coaching staff and her veteran teammates for calming the rough seas she was drifting upon.

“The team helped, the veterans helped,” she said. “They worked together to get the newbies settled.

“You realize you’re meant to be there. You worked to get there.”

Besides gaining control of her nerves, Routliffe also learned to focus on her race strategy. She was ranked third after the morning heats of the 100-m breaststroke but went into the final with her mind locked on a medal. She ended up missing the podium by .31 of a second.

“I was focused on the outcome and not focused on anything to do with the actual race,” she said. “I wanted the third. That’s all I cared about.

“I realized that was not a good way to think about it. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was so nervous and let it all catch up to me. I didn’t take a deep breath and realize what I was doing.”

Besides her silver, Routliffe earned four fourth-place finishes in Glasgow. When she raced in Toronto at the Parapan Ams, she had learned to concentrate on her technique, stick to her own strategy and not worry about the lane beside her.

Routliffe’s development has extended outside the pool. The confidence she’s gained swimming has helped in her personal life.

“Swimming in general has made me a lot more independent person, a better person I would say, than if I would have done nothing with my life,” she said.

“I’m more myself. With the people I got surrounded with (in swimming) they let me be myself. They let me kind of do what I was meant to do. I didn’t worry about what other people think. I knew they would support me either way. They helped me learn how to be a better person.

Being a teenager in high school can be a difficult path. Routliffe’s impairment added extra potholes to her journey.

“Early high school I wasn’t really myself,” she said. “I kind of tried to fit in with everybody because I was different. I just wanted to be as normal as possible.

“I started swimming (and realized) you don’t have to be normal. What is normal really? Branch out, be who you want to be. I can be Tess instead of a teenage girl.”

Unlike last summer, Routliffe travels to Rio with a better understanding of herself and her abilities.

“I’m a pretty competitive person so I like the racing,” she said.

“I expect it is just a meet. The biggest meet of our life, but it’s also just a meet. I expect big things, lots of people.”