A local athlete is getting ready for the competition of her life.
Eighteen-year-old Katie Cosgriffe from Burlington will soon be in Paris to compete against some of the best swimmers in the world.
“I was excited, it was always like kind of in the plan, and I was pretty hopefully about it, but then having that confirmation was really exciting,” Cosgriffe said.
Cosgriffe has been swimming competitively since she was 9 years old but began para-swimming a couple of years ago after her diagnosis.
“I found out that I have been living with a neurological condition called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease,” she said.
“I started losing a little bit of feeling in my hands and then also experience some weakness and numbness, and then that kind of made me realize, maybe I could para-swim, and then I started the process for that.”
The diagnosis didn’t hold her back or stop her from swimming — instead, it gave her some answers.
“Definitely put some pieces of a puzzle together, because I had always been a clumsy child,” she said.
“I found out in the summer and it took me the summer to process, but then, it gave me a lot of better opportunities. I’ve gotten to travel because of it — so I take it as a good thing.”
Her coach, Dave Tontini, says her condition hasn’t slowed her down
“Katie is is awesome. She’s a great great kid really good athlete. She’s just a fantastic swimmer but also a really good para swimmer — and obviously the adventure with Katie, with her condition, CMT, is that every day is different.”
He says that they’ve learned to become very adaptable and patient regarding their training regiment.
Cosgriffe is set to compete in the the Paralympics at the end of August, where she’ll participate in both the 100-metre fly and 100-metre back-stroke and, hopefully, she says, the relay.
Cosgriffe plans to attend Laurier University in the fall and swim for the school team as well. She also has her eyes set on the world championship in Singapore.
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