News
Keanna McInnes ready to walk the walk in Paris
23 July 2024
Keanna MacInnes has been ready for Paris 2024 longer than most, having been the first pool swimmer to join the Team GB squad, via qualification trials, prior to heading to France’s capital this week.
Such punctuality has been a lifelong habit for the Forth Valley College student athlete, who revealed she was born in the family car in the hospital car park way back in 2001.
Things have gone swimmingly since, with MacInnes preparing for her debut Olympics off the back of two Commonwealth Games appearances and supported for the past academic year by Winning Students 100, the country’s sports scholarship programme.
Scottish record holder MacInnes pulled off a major butterfly upset to book a place in Paris, beating reigning world champion Laura Stephens on two occasions, but believes the best has yet to come.
She said: “Going into trials I had two strong chances to qualify for the Games and I was surprised I was able to do both of them. I’m hoping there’s a bit more to come especially in the 100m in the summer, I just need to keep focussing.
“Qualifying has to be the career highlight so far. I was so emotional, I remember doing the interview straight out of the pool and I was properly tearing up with a crackling voice, even now day to day I think about it and it’s still the biggest source of pride I get from swimming, it’s very emotional. It’s something I’ve been working towards since I was so young and even after qualifying it didn’t feel real for a while.”
Since qualification, training both in the pool at the University of Stirling and away from it has been interesting, MacInnes offering a fascinating insight into the attention to detail applied during the countdown to competition.
She added: “The main change in the pool has been doing a lot of relay takeovers so I have been working a lot on that. In terms of physiology and training generally it’s been much the same, tried and tested, quite a scientific way of training here at Stirling, looking at training history and taking it from there.
“Away from the pool a lot of people need to acclimatise to the volume of walking you have to do in an athlete’s village, your steps basically add up really quickly when you are walking more whether that’s for the bus, to the transport hub and even to the venues as they are all so big. I’ve got a dog at home I walk twice a day so that’s probably beneficial for me!
“Athletes generally will have to walk further to get to the pool in the morning. Small things like not being used to using those muscles then walking more can become a bit of a silent energy drainer. Coaches even advised in training to start parking a little further away just to get used to walking more, even if that meant from the centre of Stirling to training. Walking the dog has been ideal for me on that front.”
Keanna will be involved in the first heats of the swimming schedule, the Women’s 100m Butterfly on the 27th July with finals taking place on the 28th July. Her second event, Women’s 200m Butterfly, is on the 31st with finals on August 1st.
To reach what is the ultimate sporting stage in Paris, MacInnes has been able to lean on both Forth Valley College and Winning Students 100 for support, something she is very grateful for.
She continued: “The college are very accommodating with shifting deadlines and making things fit with my schedule. For example, when I was at trials, I pretty much paused the degree and wasn’t doing any kind of academic work for a few weeks leading in and a week off the back of it so I could have a full rest when we were off at the pool. It can be challenging at times, but we are well supported.
“For me doing this course (Art & Design) is something fun to do, but as it’s my second degree I’ve got tuition fees to pay which I didn’t have first time around. Having the support of the Winning Students programme and its funding helps with that and allows me to have a lifestyle that is best suited to being an athlete, much better than either doing nothing or having to get a job at this stage.”
Elizabeth “Lizzy” Lim and Ross Murdoch are amongst the names of Scottish swimmers to have inspired MacInnes – Phil Potter namechecked as most influential coach – but she insists a close community of fellow swimmers is every bit as important.
She concluded: “When I was 11, 12, 13, 14 I was breaking loads of Scottish records and I was doing loads of other sports at those ages, I participated in diving and trampolining till I was early teens as well, but I was best at swimming and I had the biggest social circle there so that helped to make it enjoyable.
“If you are good at something that’s great but I was lucky that all my friends were doing it and if you just spend so much time at the pool and lift sharing to and from the pool it’s just perfect and creates loads of good memories, with hopefully many more to come.”