Nora Duggan Swimming Success (January-2011)
Nora's swimming career started in St.Marys School for Deaf Girls when she started swimming in junior infants. She started swimming competitively with St.Paul's swimming club in 2005, starting with one of the junior squads. Nora progressed steadily through the squad structure within the club until eventually reaching the club's National Squad, a group of swimmers within St.Paul's S.C. dedicated to competing at national, and often, as in Nora's case, international level.
Nora competes at Leinster, National and International level. 2010 was a fantastic year for her. She qualified for European Deaf Swimming Championships, competing in 6 events and making finals in 400 and 800 metres freestyle, 100 and 200 metres backcrawl. Nora was placed 6th in the 400, 4th in the 800, 5th in the 100 backcrawl, and 6th in the 200 backcrawl; a brilliant achievement for an Irish swimmer at such a major championships.
Also in 2010, Nora won 7 commemorative medals at the British Deaf Swimming Championships, was awarded 'Most Improved Swimmer of the Year' at the Irish Deaf Sports Association (IDSA) sports awards ceremony, and competed in the Irish Long Course Championships in April, an event which attracts the country's best swimmers, as well as a number of international teams.
This level of achievement requires incredible dedication and sacrifice, early morning training being normal for swimmers competing at such a high level. Nora's swimming week starts on Monday morning at 5.15am, rising in time to be in the pool at 5.45am for an hour and 30 mins. Next swim is Tuesday evening after school for 1½ hours, another early morning Wednesday, 2 hours Wednesday evening, early Friday morning, 2 hours again Friday evening, and a 2 hour swim on Saturday. Land conditioning is also included during this gruelling schedule.
Nora hopes all this training and commitment will help her achieve her goals. She is aiming to compete in the World Deaf Championships in Portugal this August (2011), hopes to qualify to swim the 800 freestyle at the Irish Long Course Championships later this year, with her dream being to compete in the Deaflympics.
