Nora Meister fulfilled a dream three years ago in Tokyo when she won the Paralympic bronze medal. In Paris, the 21-year-old from Aargau wants to relive the feelings of that time in the 400 m crawl.
Nora Meister sleeps little on the night of September 2 to 3, 2021. The adrenaline is still pumping too strongly, all the emotions she experienced that evening in Tokyo are still too present for her to sleep. Meister asks her roommate Elena Kratter if she feels the same. The woman from Schwyz is also awake. She too has had an evening full of emotions and adrenaline.
Nora Meister is sitting on a bench at a streetcar station in Bern's Breitenrain district as she recounts this episode of "Sleepless in Tokyo". It's a Friday afternoon in early August and the 21-year-old is in the middle of preparations for her second Paralympic Games. In the morning, she has already spent two hours in the water at the Weyermannshaus swimming pool, and after a stopover at the streetcar stop, she will get back into the pool.
Preference for longer distances
Meister completes a total of around twelve training sessions per week, nine of which are in the water. "I enjoy training and I know that it's very important for the competition," she says. And it's important for her to be able to experience moments like the one she had in Tokyo three years ago. In the Japanese capital, Meister fulfilled a dream that had been with her since she started swimming at the age of eight.
She won the bronze medal in the 400 m crawl at the Paralympics. It is her favorite discipline and one in which she can play to her strengths. Meister is unable to use her leg stroke and therefore has to rely on her arm strokes. This means she loses some time at the start and at the turns compared to competitors who can use their legs for propulsion. That's why she prefers to swim longer distances, where she can compensate for these disadvantages. "I've always been an endurance person," says Meister, who didn't start swimming primarily with the idea of competing against others, but because she enjoyed being in the water.
Several world records
It wasn't until she won her first medal at the Swiss Championships that Meister realized that fun and success could be combined. And when she won her first European Championship titles in the 100 m backstroke and 400 m crawl in Dublin in 2018 at the age of 15, she had finally arrived on the international stage. The following year, she swam her first world record in the 200 m backstroke in Berlin. There is also no faster swimmer in her S6 global category than Nora Meister in the 400 m and 800 m crawl, at least at times, although her best time in the 400 m at the Paralympics in Tokyo was beaten by China's Yuyan Jiang by around eight seconds.
The athlete from Lenzburg, who will begin her studies to become a high school teacher at the University of Teacher Education in Berne one week after the Paralympics, has collected a total of seven European Championship titles and six World Championship medals to date. In April, at the last continental championships in Funchal, Portugal, Meister wins the crawl competitions over 50, 100 and 400 meters. She also swims to silver in the 100 m backstroke.
It is proof that the girl who used to splash around in the pool at the Aarefisch swimming club in Suhr has become a fast woman who has made a name for herself on the para-swimming scene. "It's not as if everyone was surprised that I won bronze in Tokyo," says Meister. "It's a constant development." She sees every training session, every competition and every medal as an important step towards getting to where she is now as a swimmer. At her second Paralympics, in Paris.
Role model and friend
But there is also one person on Meister's path who still acts as a role model today. Chantal Cavin took part in the Paralympics three times as a blind swimmer. The Bernese swimmer is a multiple world champion and has known Meister since she started swimming. Cavin recounts how, as a young girl, Meister probably didn't even dare approach her when they first crossed paths.
But the 46-year-old, who is now a passionate runner, always makes time for the next generation, even when she was active. She is always on hand with advice and tips. When Meister trains in Bern, she sometimes stays overnight at Cavin's and they cook pasta together. This is still the case today, as a friendship has long since developed between the two women that goes far beyond sporting matters.
"Nora is a very good swimmer," says Cavin, who is co-commentating the swimming competitions at the Paralympics for Swiss television. "She is disciplined and knows what her goals are." When asked about these, Meister is diplomatic at first and talks about wanting to give her best on "Day X". After finishing seventh in the 50m crawl and ninth in the 100m crawl, which Meister has achieved so far in the La Défense Aréna in the north of Paris, it is also clear that she is entering Friday's race in her favorite discipline, the 400m crawl, with somewhat higher ambitions. "Ideally," says Meister, "I'd like to win a medal." She would certainly put up with a sleepless hour or two for that.
