Rio Olympian Helena Gasson may be one of the oldest Kiwi swimmers still at the top of their game, but she's found a new gear - breaking 20 NZ records in the past 18 months.
Even in the year of Covid, with her plans abruptly changed and her training schedule interrupted, Helena Gasson achieved something no other Kiwi swimmer has ever done.
The Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimmer set 13 New Zealand Open records in just about every swim she has recently attempted; 11 of those over a fortnight, against a tough international field in Europe.
Gasson, 27, not only became a professional at Covid-19 testing, she also set seven short course (25m pool) records in just the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley alone, while swimming at the second edition of the International Swimming League (ISL) in Hungary in November.
Established in 2019, the ISL is an annual professional swimming league, featuring a team-based competition format with fast-paced race sessions. Last year it continued, with a Covid test every few days and mandatory face masks at the pool - except when swimming.
Swimming for the LA Current team, many of the swimmers Gasson came up against were older than her.
“It’s hard in New Zealand – there’s no-one my age," she says. "But at the ISL, I was the average age. There’s not many swimmers [in New Zealand] who carry on as they should."
Gasson started swimming at the age of seven, following her two older siblings into the pool. Born in Auckland, she won medals as a junior in the Waikato – and immediately told people she would be an Olympian.
“I said I was going to go to the Olympics. When I was eight, I made a deal with a car company - Toyota – that if I got to the Olympics they'd get me a car,” she says. The deal was honoured nearly 15 years later when she received the car just before the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But Gasson never won a national event until she was 18, at her last national age group championships.
She is now effectively a full-time swimmer, spending 40 hours at the gym or the pool each week, but still likes to spend time with her two horses, nearby at her parents’ place.
In 2018, one of her horses fell on Gasson’s back while she was trimming its hooves, resulting in a torn QL (the deepest abdominal muscle), leaving her unable to swim without pain.
But in 2019 she was in sparkling form, having set seven New Zealand Open records at the 2019 national short course championships – as many as all other swimmers combined over the past two years.
So that’s 20 records in 18 months - one for each swimsuit she owns. “I own about 20 – yes they all fit.”
Her goal was to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics at the 2020 national open championships.
But on March 25, 2020, everything changed. Pools and gyms were closed, the championships were cancelled, the Olympics were suspended for a year – and her back injury flared up again.
“It was a bit unfortunate – the goal was Tokyo," Gasson says. "It hit me a bit harder than I thought it would, but then we had the ISL to look forward to.
“There was no way at my age I could turn that down. I really wanted to show what I could do on the international stage.”
She certainly did. While setting one New Zealand record is an achievement, no other New Zealand swimmer has a current open record in more than one stroke, let alone 11 records in two weeks.
“It was amazing - unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It was the best swimming experience," Gasson says.
At the ISL, Gasson broke the 200m backstroke and 200m medley records within an hour. The next day, she did the same in the 200m butterfly and the 400m individual medley, after improvements in her post-race recovery after getting tips from other swimmers at the ISL. She also became New Zealand’s first sub-58 second backstroker, clocking 57.96s in the 100m event.
Gasson currently holds eight open records, and has set records in every discipline but freestyle. No other top swimmer has lowered their record-setting personal best time more than twice in a period of two weeks.
She's been coached by her partner, Michael Weston - who also manages the Northern Arena swim school - for nearly three years, and her times have demonstrably improved.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Gasson clocked 59.82s to be 33rd in the 100m butterfly, and 2m 12.18s for 25th in the 200m butterfly. Her times are now 57.58s in the 100m, and 2m 07.14s in the 200m – enough to possibly get her into an Olympic semi-final.
Gasson’s experience in Hungary changed her mindset and increased her confidence: “I’m a completely different swimmer after coming back from the ISL.”
She continued her record-breaking ways after she returned from Europe - setting new times in the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke when she swam in Auckland in last month.
But in the tough world of international swimming, Gasson has not yet qualified for an individual event for Tokyo. So far just four New Zealanders have: Lewis Clareburt in the individual medley, Ali Galyer in backstroke, and Zac Reid and 16-year-old Erika Fairweather in freestyle. Both Clareburt and Galyer also competed in the ISL, setting personal best times.
Gasson aims to add her name to that roster at an Olympic qualifying meet in April. It will be her first crack at a Tokyo time, as she hasn't swum a long course competition - in a 50m pool – for two years. At the ISL, she lowered her 200m butterfly short course record four times – a 5s total improvement – which is a big deal.
If she does that again in the 200m butterfly, her time could put her on the podium at the world champs, in one of swimming’s most demanding events. Her 400m individual medley time was faster than the top eight at the last world champs in 2018, and the fastest a New Zealand female had clocked in 12 years.
Gasson is targeting the 200m IM on the last day of this year’s Olympic trials in April, where she is half a second out.
“I'm not really a butterflier – I trained in IM as a teenager," she says. "I hope to qualify at Opens, and I think I will. You have to back yourself," she says.
“But I don’t just want to qualify for the Olympics. I want to compete.”
