bil.png)
Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2022.9.6 B |
Object Name |
Video Recording |
Title |
Tim McIsaac Interview |
Interview Summary / Résumé d'entrevue |
Tim McIsaac, Order of Sport recipient, inducted in 2022, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, talks about the impact swimming has had on his life and the support he received from family, friends, and coaches. Tim talks about how Canada's Sports Hall of Fame models inclusivity by giving the same honour and award to para-sport athletes as non-disabled athletes and builders. Tim emphasizes how vital the support he received from his coaches of the St. James Seals, Wilf and Audrey Strom. He explains how Wilf created the tapping system, which is used to indicate when to tumble turn for visually impaired athletes, and how Wilf would walk each lap that Tim swam to make the tap. Tim mentions his involvement with the Freemasons, Scottish Rite Shriners, and Job's Daughters International. He discusses the value of sport in Canada and how sport can be a safe place for people to be their authentic selves. He mentions the increased support for athletes who discuss their mental health and how not all sports participants will become elite athletes. However, we must celebrate differences in abilities the same way we celebrate any other differences. Tim concludes with the wish that his success translates into more opportunities for youth and up-and-coming para-sport athletes and his desire for more coaches, volunteers, and resources to assist in providing those opportunities. Entrevue avec Tim McIsaac, 11 mai 2022. MP4 d'origine numérique, temps de visionnement de : 00:17:56. Tim McIsaac, récipiendaire de l'Ordre du sport, a été intronisé en 2022 et est né à Winnipeg, au Manitoba. Il parle de l'impact qu'a eu la natation sur sa vie et de l'appui qu'il a reçu de sa famille, de ses amis et de ses entraîneurs. Tim affirme que le Panthéon des sports canadiens offre un bon modèle d'inclusivité en honorant et en remettant le même prix aux athlètes et aux bâtisseurs vivant avec et sans déficiences. Tim souligne le caractère essentiel de l'appui que lui ont fourni ses entraîneurs des St-James Seals, Wilf et Audrey Strom. Il explique comment Wilf a élaboré le système du tapement, utilisé pour indiquer aux nageurs ayant une déficience visuelle à quel moment ils doivent effectuer leur rotation pour changer de direction dans leur couloir, et comment Wilf marchait aux côtés de Tim à chaque longueur qu'il effectuait pour le taper et indiquer le moment opportun. Tim mentionne son engagement avec les francs-maçons, les Shriners du Rite écossais (Scottish Rite Shriners) et l'organisme Job's Daughters International. Il parle de la valeur du sport au Canada et de la manière dont le sport peut constituer un espace sûr qui encourage les gens à être authentiquement eux-mêmes. Il mentionne l'appui croissant à l'égard des athlètes qui s'ouvrent au sujet de leur santé mentale et dit également que ceux qui font du sport ne deviendront pas tous des athlètes de haut niveau. Cependant, nous devons célébrer les différences de capacités de la même manière que nous célébrons tout autre type de différence. Tim conclut en souhaitant que son succès se traduise en un nombre accru d'opportunités pour les jeunes athlètes parasportifs et les athlètes prometteurs. Il exprime aussi le désir que davantage d'entraîneurs, de bénévoles et de ressources soient engagés dans l'effort pour fournir ces opportunités. |
Scope & Content |
Tim McIsaac interview, 11 May 2022. Born digital MP4, viewing time 00:17:56. Transcription (edited): Interviewer:So, Tim, you are a Paralympic pioneer, and you are being announced as part of the class of 2022 for the Order of Sport Award, and the induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. How do you feel about being included as part of this class? Tim:Well, I think I owe swimming a lot for helping me manage my life. So, being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, I think, is an example of a gift that keeps on giving so many years later. It's been quite a while since I competed. When I got the call to tell me, I was like, "Who is this, really?" It's fantastic. I think it doesn't honor just me, but it honors my coaches, my family, all of the people who supported me throughout my career. Even my first wife who drove me to practices, because I kept swimming for quite a while after I got married the first time, so I owe a lot to her, too. I think it's wonderful, just from what I've read about the Hall of Fame, the example that I think Canada Sports Hall of Fame sets around inclusion and diversity. Interviewer:In 2019, as you may have read, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame created the Order of Sport award, which is Canada's highest sporting honor. So, when you stand up on the stage in October and hold that award in your hand, an award that represents not only excellence in your sport, but excellence in shaping the community through sport, and being a part of the transformative power of it, what does that mean? Tim:Well, I'm, I'm really honored and think it's a privilege to be receiving this award, first of all, and I really appreciate very much what it stands for, and I think the way that the hall has branded it, in the sense that it's not just about athletic ability, athletic performance, but it's about character, and community service and all of those things as well. For me as a para-sport athlete, it's an opportunity for me to be on an equal footing with able-bodied people and all kinds of other people who are diverse for all kinds of different reasons, just the way that the hall, like I said before, has embraced that concept, and is really trying to I think be a model for the community in how to do that. We all know the kinds of things that people with disabilities struggle with, and that's certainly been the case for me. It has been that way, I think, in aspects of my life outside of sport, but sport was one place I think where I found equality, with a possible few exceptions, on a level that I haven't experienced in many of the other aspects of my life. So, I think it's a symbol for the promotion of equality, but also an opportunity for people with disabilities to believe that there are places where you can stand tall, and you can stand equally with your peers in the sports community. Interviewer:That's fantastic, Tim, thank you. So, you speak to obviously the different adversities that you had to overcome with your swimming career, your very outstanding swimming career. You've done so much for your community. What has your community done to support your role? How do you feel you've been supported as a para athlete? Tim:I think I was just lucky I was in the right place at the right time to get the support that I've had. If it hadn't been for Wilf and Audrey Strom, the coaches of the St. James Seals, if it hadn't been for my sister wanting to swim, although she gave it up sooner than I did, and her having friends and us having neighbors on the street, and somebody saying, "Why don't you come in this club,' because my sister's friend was there, and we had other families we could carpool with, none of this would've ever happened. Tim:Okay. In terms of swimming, I think the main support came from Wilf and Audrey. They devised the tapping system that we use that's still in use today. He walked every meter that I swam for many, many years, so I could race the way I practiced. Other than that, the community got behind me. Just moral support, and a lot of admiration. You derive a fair bit from that. In terms of outside of swimming, I don't know if that's what you're interested in too, I'm very involved in the Masonic family, so the Freemasons, Scottish Rite Shriners, and I've worked very closely for a number of years with a youth organization called Job's Daughters International. I've found those communities to be very accepting of me as well, and interested in what I have to give and what I have to offer, and focusing on what I can do as opposed to what I can't do. But I think in many cases it takes just being in the right place at the right time, because the kinds of things that I've experienced in swimming, the kinds of things that I've experienced in the Masonic family, and what I see as the core values of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, sadly I don't think are as universally adopted, accepted, and practiced by society as a whole as they should be. But hopefully with what the Hall of Fame is doing, that will change. Interviewer:So, broad question for you, Tim, what do you feel is the value of sport in Canada? Tim:I think sport is a place, and is becoming more so, where people can bring their whole selves to the activity and the social institution that sport is. We hear a lot of today about people bringing their whole selves to work, if you think of the workplace also as a social place, a social institution. I think that sport allows people to come and test themselves against themselves, against other people. Yeah, we want to pursue excellence, we want to find the top performers, but I know especially lately with things like Bell Let's Talk, we're hearing a lot of people, Naomi Osaka, Clara Hughes, Carey Price, talking about some of the mental struggles that they're having. I'm hoping it's a place where we understand that people are differently abled. I think that's a term we can apply to the whole world, not just people with disabilities, and we all need to accept people as they are and understand that we're not all equally gifted. We're not all equally privileged. We don't all have the same opportunities. So, when people are for lack of a better word less successful, depending on how you define success, I think we need to figure out why that is and try to help them get to where they want to be, so that they can bring their whole selves to what they're doing. Sports is social, it's public. When you're in a race, everybody knows who won, everybody knows who came second. It's not like a job interview, where you either get the job or you don't get the job, and if you don't get the job you don't know who did and off everybody goes. It's all out there for everybody to see. So, when you fail, you fail in public. When you succeed, you succeed in public. We all talk about and hear about how sport is good for kids because it helps them build character, it helps them develop resilience, it teaches them life lessons. It does all of those things, but it can't do that if there's too much focus on immediately being elite, because not everybody can be, that's why elite is elite. But does that mean that people shouldn't try to go as far as they can, and that if they don't get as far as somebody else, that they shouldn't be accepted for who they are, and that their accomplishments for what they're capable of should not be accepted for what they are? Absolutely not, but I think it's a good place for people to learn, and kids to learn how to get along, and how to become tolerant and accepting of the differences that exist, whether that's cultural differences, differences in ability, or whatever. Interviewer:Awesome. Thank you, Tim. My last question for you is, you've been a part of revolutionizing para swimming. You've left your mark as a incredibly outstanding accomplished athlete. What is the legacy that you wish to leave behind? What do you hope people remember you by? Tim:Well, as I said earlier, we developed the tapping system that it's still in use today. It became actually mandatory. It's what has to happen in competition for athletes with total blindness that are swimming. It's amazing to me that to this day there's not been anything technological that's been able to replace it yet. Perhaps there will be one day. Even though it wasn't my idea, I came to practice one day, and coach said, "We're going to teach you how to tumble turn." He got one of the other athletes, who I'm eternally grateful to as well and who has unfortunately passed on at a young age, to get in the water with me and show me how to do it, and we kind of went from there. I'd like to be remembered for that, but I also wish there could have been more, in the last however many years it's been since I retired, more me's. I know there have been a few, but I think swimming is a fantastic sport. I think it gives you a good and healthy lifestyle, and I think it can help kids build character. You need a strong character if you're going to make your way in the world as a person with a disability. I just wish that there were more coaches out there, or more volunteers out there, and more resources out there, so that other kids could have the same opportunities that I did. I know that the chance that I got was one in a million, I could have probably gone to any number of any other clubs to swim with. They might have let me swim, but I wouldn't have had the support there that I got from the St. James Seals and Wilf and Audrey Strom. I really hoped that by doing what I did, that it would've opened more doors for people than I think it has so far. So, that would be my wish, is that there becomes more opportunities, and that people give whatever gifts they have. If you can raise money, do that. If you can bake cookies to sell at a bake sale, do that. If you can drive a kid someplace, do that. Whatever you can do to help a kid get into to the sport and see how far they can go with it, that's what I would like people to remember me for. Interviewer:Wonderful. I am very optimistic, that having you named as part of this class, this is really a wonderful platform to share your story, and to ensure that there are more you's in the future. So, it'll be wonderful to share more of your story across the coming months. It's been an honor to chat with you today. Thank you so much. |
Date |
2022/05/11 |
People |
McIsaac, Tim |
Search Terms |
Tim McIsaac Interview Para-Swimming Aquatics 1976 Paralympic Games Toronto 1980 Paralympic Games Arnhem Netherlands 1984 Paralympic Games New York 1988 Paralympic Games Seoul Visual impairment World Games |