Paralympic swimmer Alice Tai on her Paris 2024 training routine
Being born with clubfoot (bilateral talipes) hasn't stopped Alice Tai MBE's swimming career from making a huge splash. She's a Paralympic, world, Commonwealth and European champion, winning gold for Great Britain on all those stages, competing in three disability swimming categories. Talk about going swimmingly.
Even though, in January 2022, Alice chose to have her right leg amputated below the knee - a long-considered decision due to increasing complications in her right foot - she took it in her stride, of course, taking home gold in the 100m backstroke at the Commonwealth Games in July 2022. WH dove in head first with Alice about navigating the waters of that physical change and her current training regime for the upcoming Paris 2024 competition season.
You were born with clubfoot and before the age of 12 had undergone 14 corrective operations, sometimes requiring a wheelchair for long periods of time to recover. How did you navigate that physical challenge with swimming?
'Land-based activities were difficult for me with all the surgery and I never felt particularly free. But I was the same speed as everyone else [in the pool]. I didn't know my disability, and it didn't impact me there. When I had surgeries, the hardest thing was that I just felt so restricted. I didn't have that outlet of freedom. But it was [my club], Seagull Swimming that got me through it. I got a blue plastic cast once and one of the mums made a stencil of the club logo so I could decorate it.'
Do you still feel positive about your decision to amputate?
'100%. Swimming was something that I was willing to sacrifice for that extra quality of life. Luckily, I can still swim and my times are good enough to be competitive on the international scene. [After so many invasive operations, I spent many years walking with crutches regularly], but then [suddenly] I couldn't use them, because I'd hurt my ulnar nerves and both my arms from training and crutch use. But I couldn't really walk without them.
'And I couldn't use a self-propelling a wheelchair either because the movement was irritating to my nerves. So I was so immobile. That's what kept me out of the last Paralympics in Tokyo 2021. I was relying on someone always being there to help me out and care for me, which was really frustrating. I thought, "My right foot's the problem keeping me from walking independently. So let's get rid of it and replace it with a carbon-fibre foot."'
Had you been considering the surgery for years?
'I'd had surgery around 2011-2012 and it didn't go very well. My right foot, although it was in a better position, medically, for walking, [went through] a whole host of things that made it worse in general to live with. I got really bad arthritis in it; it became deformed as the bone at the base of my big toe fractured, so then my big toe was never straight and it was always out to the side, which made it uncomfortable in shoes. And all these issues just got worse.
'When I went to the doctor the next time they were talking about corrective surgery, they talked about pinning my toe to my right foot, so it looked more aesthetically pleasing. I was like, "But is that actually going to help or is it just aesthetics? Can you just amputate it?" I asked about both my legs, because I was done with surgery.
'But they told me to wait until I finished growing, because you can get bone spurs where the bone keeps growing and ends up piercing the skin. So I waited and my left foot stayed pretty stable through that time and it's functional enough. But [the surgeon] took a look at my right foot and said, "This is the least functional foot I've ever seen."'
Can you talk about the physical challenges of learning how to swim again after your amputation?
'Training was boring at the beginning. But then I started getting back into it. I also neglected the fact that I hadn't trained for a good couple of years because of all the injury and surgery, so my body just wasn't ready. I remember the first week when I did harder training, I was absolutely wrecked.
'The first couple of weeks where I wasn't like focused on recovery, I was absolutely dying. I was in bed thinking, "How on Earth am I going to do this for another two years up until the Paralympics?" Having a strategy to help my physical recovery really helped.'
Do you look at your body differently?
'When I see pictures of myself with both of my legs, it feels a bit weird. And I noticed my fat composition changed, which I wasn't expecting.'
What has your proudest moment been?
'People would probably think it was a Paralympic gold medal or the seven golds at the Worlds Championships in 2019. But I actually think it was World Championships in 2022. It was my first competition after my amputation and Covid, so I hadn't been competing at international level for a very, very long time. I turned up five months after my amputation to World Championships, and I got a silver in the 100m freestyle. It's the only medal that I've got that I've cried about, after I finished the race, and then on the podium as well.
'I thought that people might think I was crying because I didn't win, but it was actually because I was just so overwhelmed to be back on poolside seeing loads of my friends. More swimmers than I realised had kept up to date with how I was doing, and people were saying, "It's amazing to have you back." The friendliness of every single swimmer that I spoke to was overwhelming.'
What have you found challenging?
'I had such a long time out with Covid, and then I had surgery through the Tokyo Paralympics, my amputation in 2022, and another surgery on one of my arms after that, so my body had been through it. The hardest thing was mentally accepting that my training had to adapt. The athlete I was between 2022-2023 was not the same athlete as 2019, because I'd had six surgeries in that timeframe.'
'Training had been hard sessions, really pushing myself. And to get back in the pool and only do 500m or 1000m of just technique was so boring. I hated it and it was really difficult. But my coach Dave was really patient. But now I'm back to full training, doing the two-hour sessions, 4 - 5k, actually fun sessions.'
How are you currently training?
'So I'm doing six sessions a week, whereas before I was doing nine, and we're focusing more on quality and specific events. We're doing exactly what I need, instead of trying to build up volume.
'I'll be training Monday to Saturday. Normally I'd swim in the morning, for two hours, then my boyfriend will make me breakfast and I'll go to the gym in the afternoon. I'm doing three gym sessions a week at the moment, about an hour and a half to two hours long.'
What do those gym sessions entail?
'Right now they're complementary to swimming. It's more bodyweight, and there's a lot of core and leg work, helping with walking, and stabilisation on the blocks and on my turns. It's more little things than a big, full-on weight session.
'On my legs, it's so simple because I've not got much endurance in them, so glute bridges and single-leg Romanian deadlifts, which are really good for on the block for my left leg. And then upper body, it's more calisthenics - so ring work and pull-ups.'
What's your nutrition like?
'I'm a big vegetarian, but I also don't eat dairy, or eggs so I'm probably more vegan or plant-based. Making sure I'm getting protein is massive — finding a plant-based protein powder really helped and partnering with Optimum Nutrition was fab. They have a clear protein which is peach or lime flavoured, and you can make slushies and ice lollies with them - it feels like a holiday.'
What are your protein sources asides from protein powder?
'I like tofu, quinoa and lentils. I try to stay away from the fake meat substitutes.'
What are your hopes for the future of Paralympic swimming?
'The more exposure that Paralympic sports get — across the board, not just swimming — the more people with disabilities are going to feel like they can explore that. Ellie Simmonds has got a massive profile. And then over the [past] few years, the amount of dwarves that were turning up to competitions literally increased so much. You can really see the direct effects that athletes have. The more exposure, the better.'
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