By Jim Morris

Appearing in a music video that sends a message about inclusion resonates with Danielle Kisser.

Kisser and Tess Routliffe, teammates at the High Performance Centre – Quebec who both recently competed at the Madeira 2022 World Para Swimming Championships, appear together in the video for Coldplay’s song Biutyful.

The video tells the story of the puppet band The Weirdos who are shunned by a human-only world before finally achieving success after finding others who look like them.

“I think it’s really cool,” said Kisser, 25, of Delta. B.C., who was part of Swimming Canada’s team at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and is preparing for the Commonwealth Games, which begin Friday. “I think it goes well with the whole message of the Paralympics and being inclusive. Everyone finding their own place to shine in some way.

“It was kind of cool that we were part of a video that shows that through puppets and singing.”

The video is directed by Mat Whitecross, who directed past Coldplay videos for Violet Hill and Paradise. Whitecross is also involved in a documentary following different athletes as they trained through the COVID-19 pandemic for the Tokyo Games, tentatively titled Rising Phoenix: Tokyo

A video Kisser made of building her own pool caught the attention of people making the documentary.

“They were looking for athletes and they found me,” said Kisser. “They brought on Mat as the director a few months in. We started working together.”

Kisser, who is four-foot-one, burst onto the international stage as a 14-year-old when she won a bronze medal in the 100-m breaststroke at the 2011 Guadalajara Parapan Am Games.

In 2014 she underwent a double-leg osteotomy. The surgery involved her tibia and fibula bones being broken, screws installed, and her ankles rotated to realign with her knees. She was in a wheelchair until January 2015.

She returned to win two medals in the S6 class at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Championships. At the Tokyo Paralympics, Kisser finished 10th in the women’s 100-m breaststroke SB6.

Members of the Canadian Para swimming team were attending a training camp in Phoenix, Ariz., at the same time Coldplay were performing a concert. Whitecross planned to use the concert to film the Biutyful video. He reached out to Kisser and said he had four tickets if she wanted to attend.

“He was kind of vague about it,” said Kisser. “He (said) we’re filming a video for Coldplay with puppets. That was it.”

Besides Routliffe, Mike Thompson, head coach of the HPC – Quebec and Emma Van Steen, senior manager with Swimming Canada’s high performance Para Swimming programs, also attended the concert.

“We had killer seats and backstage passes,” said Thompson, a member of the staff for Commonwealth Games along with Van Steen. “It was pretty cool.

“During the concert I thought it was very strange that they had these puppets.”

When the concert ended, about 40 people remained. That’s when the crowd shots used in the video were taken. One of the shots is a close-up of Kisser and Routliffe, smiling, waving and holding a sign.

The video was also featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The clip of Kisser and Routliffe was shown. Kisser chuckled when asked if her brush with rock star fame has changed her.

“No, we just got a pretty cool opportunity,” she said.