Swimming was always part of Whiston’s life and she took part in non-disabled competition throughout her younger years.
Back in 2012, she was among the crowds at the London Paralympics, cheering on Ellie Simmonds to gold before she realised that she too could follow in Simmonds’ footsteps as a Para-swimmer. She obtained her international classification in 2018.
Her coach, Stewart Nicklin at the Barking and Dagenham club, has been key to her success and they are constantly learning from each other to get the best results.
“We work hard together – sometimes when I think I can’t do it, he just tells me to get on with it,” she says.
“There are times when my hands won’t work properly at the end of a session and I am exhausted, and my coach has to take my goggles and hat off and give me my drinks bottle.”
Whiston started her career in the S8 category before being moved to the S9 category, where she competed against less-impaired rivals. After going through classification again earlier this year, she is back as an S8., external
Despite the changes, she says she remains focused on her own race and performance and starts her bid for Paris with the 400m freestyle on Friday, the 100m butterfly and 200m medley on Saturday and the 100m breaststroke and 100m freestyle on Sunday.
“There are some greats in both categories but at the end of day you are just there to do what you can do and race your own race,” she says.
“Classification is done on observation and what the classifiers perceive you to be, and you are scored in and out of the pool.
“People can agree with it or disagree with it but it is the system. There will always be a variation of impairments within a class but you just have to get on with it and be grateful that you are in a position where you can still swim.”
