Mary Jibb reached the highest level of her sport less than 10 years after she started.
At only 17-years-old, Jibb has been named to Canada’s para-swimming team for the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France.
The Bracebridge-born athlete is one of the 20 para-swimmers who will land in the French capital for the Paralympics. The event opens on Aug. 28 and wraps up on Sept. 8. The Paralympics begin just over two weeks after the closing ceremony for the Olympics on Aug. 11.
Jibb says her event schedule hasn’t been finalized yet, but she knows she will compete in at least four events and possibly a fifth if she’s picked for Canada’s relay squad. She adds her best style is the backstroke.
She explains how she suffered a stroke just before her sixth birthday and with limited physio options, Jibb and her parents decided to go the personal training route and she started swimming.
“It isn’t a one-sided sport,” continues Jibb, pointing out how the stroke affected the right side of her body. “You have to use both sides of your body.”
Heather Lee with the Muskoka Aquatic Club is Jibb’s long-time coach. They train at the Bracebridge Sportsplex and Lee says almost immediately, she knew Jibb was something special.
“I think you could tell from a young age she just had a pure love and joy for swimming,” says Lee. She adds it was clear to everyone around the pool that Jibb was determined to be the hardest worker and despite initial struggles at the competitive level, continued to push to make herself better. “The joy and the fun and work ethic turned into a more serious, more mature athlete,” explains Lee. “It’s been really fun over the last few years watching her mature and grow into the athlete she is today.”
On Paralympic.org, it says, “in order to safeguard the integrity of fair competition, all Para-sports have a system in place which aims to ensure that winning is determined by sporting factors such as skill, fitness, power, endurance, tactical ability and mental focus, the same factors that account for success in sport for able bodied athletes.”
Jibb is classified as S9.
The “S” defines her sport class and covers freestyle, butterfly, and backstroke events. The number, which goes from one to 10, classifies each athlete based on their ability.
“They can have a myriad of different impairments,” explains Lee. “The way they measure and qualify is that you have to go through a bunch of testing.”
She outlines how Jibb’s body movement was tested on a bench and again in the water. Her subsequent S9 classification was based on those tests.
“Most people wouldn’t catch on to know that I had a stroke, but when you really look and pay attention, you’ll will notice the propulsion with my foot isn’t the same, and neither is my stroke,” explains Jibb. “I don’t finish all the way through to my hip like you’re supposed to do.”
Lee says it’s rare for an athlete to get as good as Jibb did as quickly as she did.
“You’re talking about the top one percent, or less than one percent, of athletes in the world at that sport,” says Lee. “I’ve been coaching for over 20 years, and this is my first crack at even working with a swimmer like this.”
While Lee wasn’t named a coach for the Canadian team, she says she will be in Paris to watch Jibb compete.
“It’s rare,” she says. “I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to do this with an athlete I’m coaching again.”
Jibb adds she looks forward to seeing her teammates again during the two-week training session scheduled prior to the Paralympics, adding she’s eager to jump into the pool with some of the best athletes in the world.
