Canadian Paralympians Danielle Kisser and Tess Routliffe were recently featured in a music video for the band Coldplay’s song Biutyful. The teammates at the High Performance Center – Quebec were both members of the Canadian team at the 2022 Para World Swimming Championships.
According to Kisser, the video was designed around the idea of inclusion, with the main plotline following the story of a band of puppets attempting to find its place in a human world. Kisser and Routiffe were included in one of the closing scenes of the music video, where they are members of the crowd the puppet band performs for. The pair are featured smiling and waving to the camera.
Their feature in the video came after director Mat Whitecross saw a video of Kisser swimming. According to Kisser, he then reached out while the HPC team was at a training camp in Arizona and offered her 4 tickets to Coldplay’s concert in the state where the video was being shot. Kisser invited Routiffe, along with Mike Thompson, the head coach of the HPC – Quebec, and Emma Van Steen, the senior manager with Swimming Canada’s high performance Para Swimming programs to attend the concert with her.
“We had killer seats and backstage passes,” said Thompson of their experience.
“I think it’s really cool,” Kisser told Swimming Canada regarding their experience. “I think it goes well with the whole message of the Paralympics and being inclusive. Everyone finding their own place to shine in some way.”
You can watch the full music video here:
Kisser was born with achondroplasia, a condition that impairs bone growth in certain regions of the body. As a result of that, she has short-limbed dwarfism and competes in the SB6 classification. First making the Canadian team for the 2014 Parapan American Championships and winning a bronze medal in the 100 breaststroke at the age of 14, Kisser has represented Canada internationally on several occasions. She was a member of the country’s team for the 2021 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, competing in the SB6 100 breaststroke.
Routliffe competed in the S7 class and represented Canada at the 2016 Paralympic Games, where she won a silver medal in the SM7 200 IM. She was diagnosed with hypochondroplasia as a child, a disease that affects the conversion of cartilage into bone and causes shortened limbs. After missing the 2021 Paralympic Games due to a back injury, Routliffe won the SB7 100 meter breaststroke at the 2022 Paralympic World Championships, also medaling in the S7 50 butterfly and the SM7 200 IM.
