Tupou Neiufi with her Tokyo Paralympics gold. Photo / Getty Images
Tupou Neiufi with her Tokyo Paralympics gold. Photo / Getty Images
Dave Crampton for LockerRoom
Swimming champion Tupou Neiufi is a late callup to a Paralympics for a second time, after a successful time trial secured her selection for Paris, which starts on Thursday, NZT.
Neiufi, 23, is the defending Paralympic champion in the 100m backstroke S8 and willalso compete in the 50m freestyle S8 at her third Paralympics.
S8 is a competition class for para-swimmers who have low-level coordination, movement moderately affected in the legs, or lacking all round muscle power.
“It was a long time coming, but I’m super happy, super stoked,” Neiufi says of her Paris selection. “It has been a challenging leadup to the Games but since nationals in April everything has started to click and I’m both happy and relieved to make my third Paralympic team.”
Neiufi qualified for Paris when winning bronze at last year’s world championships in Manchester in August. But she was not named in the selection announcement after this year’s Swimming New Zealand national open championships in April.
She fell short of qualifying times in April and at the Swimming World Series in Singapore the following month, after the rest of the Paris swimming team had been named.
While Neiufi had qualified through the worlds last year, some of her subsequent results led to doubts as to whether she was up to competing at Paris.
“At one point I was asking myself, ‘do I actually want to go to the Games’?” she says. “Some moments I feel confident building into Paris, the next thing I’m eating four burgers from McDonalds, gaining weight.”
Neiufi says her times at each national open championships in March or April are often five seconds slower than her times later that year. The reason: Christmas and New Year.
“When people start bringing out the island food, I end up gaining weight and I’m just playing catchup before Opens.
“After Opens leading up to the pinnacle events – last year that was worlds – I ended up dropping six seconds within a couple of months. That’s the same thing that’s happened this year. "
But this year, a successful 100m backstroke time trial after returning from Singapore led to her being named in the team for Paris as a late selection.
“I was already on the team, but I made the decision not to get named with the other swimmers until I did those time trials,” Neiufi says. “I felt that had I not gone faster in those time trials I would not have been confident for Paris.”
Paralympics New Zealand chief executive Greg Warnecke said he was ecstatic to add Neiufi to the team.
“She is an experienced Paralympian who has continued to excel on the international stage. Her presence is a huge boost for the team, and we look forward to seeing how she performs in the pool in Paris.”
Now that Neiufi has her Paris ticket, does keeping an eye on the scales mean no more McDonald’s until after Paris is over?
“Oh, I had some last night, but only one. I didn’t tell my coach though,” she says.
A childhood accident and recovery led Tupou Neiufi to a career in swimming. Photo / Supplied
Born and raised in the South Auckland suburb of Māngere as the eldest of seven children, Neiufi was 2 when she was left in a coma after being hit by a speeding car that failed to stop. The driver was never found.
Neiufi was left with a traumatic brain injury and a condition called hemiplegia; the right side of her body is stronger than the paralysis on her left side. She also has hypertonia, a condition where excessive muscle tone means her arms and legs can be stiff and more difficult to move compared with others.
In the pool, both sides of her body feel much the same. Yet due to her condition, she tires quickly. Her kicking in the pool is not as smooth as others as her right ankle faces inwards when kicking. Fatigue also limits her choice of events, so she does not compete in longer swims such as 800m and 1500m freestyle.
“Not even 200m.”
Swimming takes more energy out of Neiufi than most, “but at the same time I feel that it’s just really rewarding; what the sport brings me”.
Has she ever felt like quitting due to the fatigue?
“Plenty of times, yeah – but the money’s good,” she jokes.
This year, just two other S8 swimmers outside the 2023 world championship podium have faster times than Neiufi, but she is hoping to better recent times and get on the podium at Paris.
“I feel like my rankings have been up and down since Tokyo. I’m hoping I can pull some type of miracle,” she says.
As the youngest New Zealand team member aged 15, Neiufi placed seventh in the 100m backstroke S9 at the 2016 Rio Paralympics when she was a late replacement for the injured Bryall McPherson. She also broke a New Zealand record.
After a change in her competition class after her sixth place in the 100m backstroke S9 at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Neiufi has graced the podium ever since, winning the 100m backstroke S8 at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. She led from start to finish, securing New Zealand’s first gold medal.
Neiufi’s reclassification to S8 was due to her left side stiffening more as she got older, making her impairment greater. Had she remained an S9 swimmer, she would not have qualified for Tokyo or Paris.
In 2019 she claimed her first World Para Swimming Championship silver medal in the Women’s 100m backstroke S9, repeating that effort at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
But Neiufi would not have been on any podium had she not started swimming lessons as part of her post-accident rehabilitation. This forced her to use her left side of her body as she had to use both arms to take strokes, and both legs and feet to kick.
“If I didn’t, I would have sunk,” she says.
She soon fell in love with the sport and took up swimming competitively at a national level, aged 11. Yet she can’t stand the smell of chlorine and doesn’t like getting wet.
“I hate the smell of chlorine,” she says. “As soon as I finish swimming I’m straight in the shower, literally scrubbing it off my arms.
“Yes, I hate getting wet; it’s a bit of a love-hate relationship with water.”
After Paris, Neiufi intends to complete her NCAA qualifications. She dropped out of Otahuhu College before the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but did win sports awards, taking the junior girl’s athletics award.
She also won the award for the best individual sporting performance after getting seven medals at the 2015 New Zealand secondary school swimming championships. It was the first time that a junior at Otahuhu College had ever won the award, let alone someone with a disability.
Now as a senior swimmer, she has a Paralympic title to defend on September 1.
Other swimmers in Paris include Lili-Fox Mason, Gabriella Smith, and Neiufi’s training partner Joshua Willmer, who will all make their debuts. Jesse Reynolds will compete in his second Paralympics and Cameron Leslie his fourth.
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
