It’s swim meet day at the Parc Jean Drapeau Aquatic Centre.
Competitors from swim clubs all over Montreal and beyond are battling it out, but for one of the swimmers the meet holds a bit more meaning.
It’s the third competitive swim meet back for 14-year-old Zoë Morinville. She’s been out for a year during her fight with cancer.
“It went well, I’m still getting back into it though,” she told Global News.
Before being diagnosed with leukemia, Morinville was the top swimmer for her age group in the province. Last summer, her home pool swam in her honour at an event at Cedar Park Pool. She was too sick to attend.
“It’s been a tough year,” said her father Mike Poirier.
“We really wondered sometimes where we’d get to.”
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Morinville is used to being in the pool every single day — but that became impossible during her treatments. It hasn’t been an easy year.
“The biggest challenge has just been watching her suffer and seeing the pain she’s had to go through,” said Poirier.
Even as she was going through tough times, she always wanted to swim.
“It was my life so needing to stop that was a big change,” Morinville said.
Her father explained there were times Morinville insisted on swimming even when she was almost too tired to walk from the car to the pool because she wanted to be in the water.
She’s doing much better now, but the chemotherapy is ongoing. While the treatments affect her strength, Morinville wants to get back to winning.
“She doesn’t have quit in her,” said her father.
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Morinville’s relentless drive is rubbing off on others too.
“Every time somebody’s having a tough practice or a hard day and Zoë gets in the pool, everybody king of changes their attitude and does a much better job,” explained her coach, Paul Biloserskyj.
For those going through something hard like she is, the 14-year-old has some advice to offer.
“When times are hard, you need to stay positive, or else it’s just going to make it a million times worse. If I was not staying positive, it was a lot worse than if I was thinking of the good stuff instead of thinking about the bad stuff,” she said.
Her goal before cancer was to make it to the Olympic Games. She still wants to get there.
“I hope I do, but I don’t know if I will,” Morinville said.
Even if she doesn’t, she’s already a champion to so many.