Tammy Cunnington lowered her own world record in the S4 class women’s 50m butterfly Saturday night at the 2015 US Paralympics Swimming Open .
Cunnington touched in at 56.14 to not only claim gold, but break Swedish swimmer Sandra Erikson’s 11-year-old world record of 56.36 that she swam at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.
Per her world record performance Cunnington was named the swimmer of the day, and later aptly named the swimmer of the meet.
Cunnington, who swims under Mandi Smith in Red Deer, Alta. also broke the Canadian record in the 100m freestyle during the competition.
“We’ve been setting goals but we haven’t known how far we can go,” said coach Smith. “The fact that she’s already at the level right now is really, really exciting for her.”
Although Cunnington is already experienced having competed at last year’s World Championships and Para Pan Am Games, Cunnington has only been training swimming specifically for close to a year now.
Prior to her switch to swimming, Cunnington was a triathlete with her sights set on the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. While her sport may have changed, her goal has not.
“It’s been her dream to go to Rio for a long time,” said Smith. “Her moving to swimming has been a huge learning curve for her.”
The S4 50m butterfly isn’t an event offered at the 2016 Paralympic Games, instead, if she wants to swim it there she will need to qualify in the S5 category.
“That speed is hopefully something that will get her to do that,” Smith said.
Cunnington will be swimming at the 2016 Canadian Olympic & Para-swimming Trials this April with hopes of making the Paralympic team that will compete in Rio this summer.
