Decorated Paralympian returns to northwestern Ontario hometown to revive Atikokan swimming club

Things have come full circle for Paralympic medal winning swimmer Tom Hainey.

Hainey, who was born in Atikokan, got his start in the pool with the town's Nakokita Swim Club in the late 1970s. He relaunched the club a few years ago after it had been defunct for about two decades, and is now coaching a new group of swimmers at their first meet.

"We have an expression: swimming keeps kids clean," Hainey said. "What they get out of it is a very, very structured life. They tend to be better students, there's not a whole lot of room in their life to go sideways."

"They get that structure and parents get peace of mind."

He speaks from experience — his own swimming career was a very successful one.

Hainey said he was born with a disability, and his parents and coach were approached by an official from Thunder Bay who asked if he'd be interested in participating in competitions for athletes with disabilities.

"Originally I had said no, because I hadn't thought of myself as an athlete with a disability," he said. "Once I got past that, I started competing in the Paralympic movement."

Hainey competed at the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Paralympics, winning four gold medals and five silvers, and also raced at the world championships.

"A natural evolution of athletes is for them to go into coaching, which I did part-time while I was going to school, and fell in love with coaching as I did in swimming," he said.

After finishing school, Hainey took over the original Nakokita club, but then had an offer to coach with the Manta Swim Club in Winnipeg in 1997. He accepted, and spent 20 years with that club.

Then, Hainey realized he needed a change.

"I left coaching in Winnipeg because I didn't think it was fair to the athletes that I was asking