KEY POINTS:
Brilliant young disabled swimmer Sophie Pascoe has special motivation for her pursuit of medals at next year's Beijing Paralympics.
The 14-year-old Christchurch girl made another leap forward in her career with five gold medals and two PBs at the international wheelchair and amputee games in Taipei last week.
These follow a World Cup and two British championship golds and a world championship bronze in the past 12 months.
Some of the credit for her successes can go to her late grandfather John Goodman, who died two years ago.
Pascoe was close to him, and thinks about him before every race.
"When I first got into competition and was up there and stuff, I said to my grandfather before he died that I'd always wanted to go to the Paralympics, and would do it for him," she said.
This year's international triumphs make the young Christchurch teenager one of our big hopes for medals in Beijing next year.
Pascoe showed her versatility in Taiwan with her victories in the 100m freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke, 200m individual medley, and 400m freestyle.
However, her concentration from now on will be on the 200 IM and the 100 back and breast.
In Taiwan she competed outdoors for the first time - the indoor games pool was too shallow and the swimming had to be moved.
This summer Pascoe, coached by Roly Crichton, will race able-bodied swimmers in local meets and build up to the disabled national age groups in Christchurch in March, before, hopefully, another trip to Britain.
"I've got a week off and then November will be the start of my full-on Paralympic training," she said.
And there are also her school exams at Lincoln High to fit in.
- CHRISTCHURCH STAR
