SIMMONS: Letters from a troubled Mighty Mouse and Olympic advice for Summer McIntosh

Article content

PARIS — Before there was Penny Oleksiak and her haul of Olympic medals and before there was Summer McIntosh on her current quest, there was a lone tiny Canadian woman who set the swimming world ablaze.

Article content

Before everything fell apart for Elaine Tanner.

They called her Mighty Mouse — she still goes by that nickname — and more than half a century after the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, after years of being estranged from Swim Canada, after suffering from depression, two divorces, anxiety, eating disorders and too many thoughts of ending her life, she is home in British Columbia with her husband John, as maybe the biggest swim fan in Canada.

The biggest fan and the most prolific of letter writers — personally understanding the success and possible failures of Canadian athletes here.

She wrote an open letter to Oleksiak after Penny won her four medals in Brazil in 2016, which broke Tanner’s 48-year-old record for most Canadian medals won at a Summer Games.

Article content

Article content

She wrote a letter of encouragement to McIntosh before these Games. And she wrote a separate letter to the entire Canadian swim team and portions of these letters have been read to the swimmers in team or individual meetings of preparation.

Connecting past and present is something that matters to Swim Canada and something that matters deeply to Tanner after a life of so much difficulty.

She doesn’t detail much about how swimming made her life – and almost ruined it – in any of her letters.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

Canada won just five medals in total at the 1968 Games. That’s what happened back in those days. We weren’t an Olympic factor of any kind.

Think of the math: Canada won five medals in Mexico, Tanner won three of them. That should have been a story for her to carry around for the rest of her life.

Article content

But that’s not what happened with the diminutive Mighty Mouse.

She was the world record holder in the 100 and 200 backstroke as the Olympics approached. She was supposed to win gold in the 100. She had won the Lou Marsh Award winner in 1966. She won four gold medals and three silver medals at the Commonwealth Games and followed that up a year later with two golds and three silvers and two world records in Winnipeg for the Pan-Am Games of ’67.

Then came the Olympics.

The buildup was not unlike what McIntosh has faced heading into these Games. Tanner had been the poster girl for Canadian sport. The difference between then and now, it’s not all about Summer here.

There are more than 20 athletes contending for medals here. And that’s not including the two basketball teams and a soccer team full of Canadian athletes. This is only Day 3 of competition here and Canada already has medals of all three colours after triumphs in judo, swimming, diving and fencing.

Article content

When Tanner went to Mexico City, the Olympics were all about her across Canada. She was the story. And when she didn’t win gold in the 100-metre backstroke, she was declared the national failure. A headline read: “Tanner loses gold.”

For years she never viewed her three medals as Olympic success. She couldn’t get over the belief she let the country down.

She was so distraught she quit swimming after the ’68 Games while still a teenager. She couldn’t deal with being everyone’s disappointment.

But that was so long now, with Tanner in her 70s, 31 years married to her third husband, John Watt. Both found each other at a time in their lives when they each needed similar support.

“Even after 50 plus years, I still get goosebumps and butterflies thinking of the amazing superhuman performances that lay ahead,” Tanner wrote in her letter to McIntosh. “Fractions of a second will determine the ultimate winners here even though it has taken many years of relentless effort to get there.

Article content

“All the hours of training and preparation will somehow seem like distant memories when the moment is at hand for the final race.”

Some of the Canadian swimmers are fascinated by the history of their sport. Others are more robotic, caught up in the latest record or decimal point that goes along with personal bests.

The American-turned-Canadian, Taylor Rook, didn’t know the national anthem when she first started swimming for Canada out of Arizona, but when she won eight medals at the Commonwealth Games, she wanted to know about the woman whose record she broke.

That happened to be Tanner, who won seven in ’66, four for them gold.

We don’t know how many medals McIntosh will win here, but it’s expected to be a haul. It won’t be the 60% of the Canadian medals, which is what Tanner won in 1968. But the number should be impressive.

Article content

“I would highly recommend Summer take a look (at the letter to her) if she hasn’t already,” Tanner said. “I know by her track record and brilliant performances she has a strong mindset and laser focus.

“I am so pleased that Summer was able to compete in the previous Olympics as I think this will prove to be a very beneficial … I only wish I had been able to go as a 13 year old to the ’64 Tokyo Olympics. This would have helped me immensely in Mexico City.

“Many a race is won or lost not by the other competitors, but by the thoughts in one’s own head long before the race ever begins … I made the psychological mistake of believing my race was do-or-die with no margin for error. It allowed the seeds of doubt to have crept into my brain. I had all of a sudden forgotten why I was there, which was my love for swimming.

“I had mistakenly focused on my result rather than on my race that day, which cost me dearly.”

“We are never just a performance or a medal,” she wrote to McIntosh. “Nor should we ever be judged or measured by the sweep of a clock.

“Hold your head high, Summer. You owe us nothing as you have already given us so much…Just be you out there, throw fear to the wind as you always do.

She signed the letter, “Elaine Tanner, Order of Canada. Mighty Mouse.”

[email protected]

Article content