On the initial timeframe for qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, Gasson was ready and eager to earn her place at a second straight Games. Then Covid-19 ran rampant across the world, forced the Games to be delayed a year and sent New Zealand into aneight-week lockdown.
Not only had the timeline she was working towards been thrown out the window, she had eight weeks in which she was not allowed to swim.
When she was able to get back in the water, things went from bad to worse as she injured her left shoulder - derailing her preparation.
"I didn't do what I wanted to do in 2016 in Rio; I had bigger Olympic goals than that, and I was ready for it in 2020," Gasson tells to the Herald. "Before Covid, I was definitely ready to go. Then we had that massive lockdown, and that's how I tore my shoulder originally – coming back into the pool after eight weeks without doing anything."
At the time, Gasson and her coach and partner Michael Weston didn't know the extent of the injury. However, while Gasson was at a point where she was getting ready for the Olympic qualification events, she instead had to deal with rehabilitation and everything that goes with it.
As Gasson recalls, it was not a happy time.
"Obviously, I couldn't do pool as much as I could but I did push through, and it meant every session I'd get through 100 or 200m before the pain really started and from that moment, the whole session I was just getting more and more depressed, more angry and taking that out on my coach - my coach is my partner, so we have a kind of different relationship there," Gasson says.
Helena Gasson competed at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Photo / Photosport
"Every session I'd get in the pool and just get so depressed and sad that I couldn't do what I knew I could do. It was really frustrating.
"It is really hard when you just physically can't do it. You've got two hours in the pool ahead of you and you're basically swimming with one arm. It definitely sucks to say the least, but I don't remember not wanting to go. We're pretty good on taking time out if we need it."
It was a rough period, but with only had eight weeks before she was due to travel to Europe for the International Swimming League, Gasson really had no time to waste and was studious in her rehab.
It paid off. In the ISL, Gasson thrived. An event she credits with saving her career, the ISL is a professional teams-based competition with four teams from the USA, one from Canada, and five from Europe. Swimming for the LA Current, Gasson set 13 New Zealand records in backstroke, individual medley and butterfly during the 2020 season, held in November.
Come the Olympic trials in April and May of 2021, Gasson was still dealing with injury – in both shoulders - but had been swimming well. However, she missed the qualification mark for his favoured 200m individual medley by 0.12sec.
It wasn't until two weeks later that she found out she had a tear in her left shoulder.
"We didn't know, when it was (Olympic) trials, the extent of my injuries," she says. "We still don't really know what's going on with the right one, but that one's fine right now so we'll just leave it.
"To get as close as what I did off of that, I have to give myself credit for that. A torn shoulder isn't something to play around with as a swimmer."
Gasson considered the option of surgery to repair her left shoulder, however didn't have the window to do so before returning for the 2021 season of the ISL. She says if it had been getting worse, it would have probably been the option she took and simply written 2022 off.
Instead, she'll be representing New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July.
While still swimming through injury at the trials in March, the 27-year-old qualified to compete in the 200m IM, with permission to compete in the 200m butterfly, 100m butterfly, 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke.
Reflecting on the past 18 months, Gasson says while she had plenty of obstacles in her way, despite the disappointments that came with those, she never considered hanging up her swimsuits.
"After (Olympic) trials, it was never in my head to retire. I always had that second goal, because I was quite successful," she reflects. "I'm going to blow my own horn a little bit here, but ISL was very successful for me over both seasons I've done.
"I honestly didn't associate swimming with being fun before in my life. If you've swum you know how boring it can be, and it is so time consuming, but it's definitely reinvigorated the sport and my career, especially. It's given me a lot more opportunities that I never thought I would get.
"To be on the (New Zealand) team now, it's kind of similar to my first team. It's not so much a dream come true, as I've already lived that dream, but getting back there, I didn't know it was going to happen so it is still like my dream coming true – again."
