Kira Toussaint was six when she had her first Olympic experience, getting up in the middle of the night accompanied by a TV crew to watch the swimming finals from Sydney 2000 where she was spellbound by Inge de Bruijn.
Not many six-year-olds would be woken in the small hours but Toussaint’s mother is Jolanda de Rover who won gold in the 200 backstroke and 100 bronze at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
No Dutch swimmer had won gold in the subsequent three Olympics but De Bruijn qualified fastest for the final of the 100 fly in Sydney, an event in which she was the world-record holder.
With the Netherlands swimmer favourite for the title, a TV crew was present at the Toussaint household in the early hours of 17 September to capture the reaction as De Bruijn won the first of her three titles in Sydney, all in world-record time.
Toussaint told Swimming World:
“The biggest thing was that we were allowed to wake up in the middle of the night to watch swimming.
“I think that impressed me more than the camera crew showing up – that we were just allowed to wake up: that’s cool.
“So, a television crew was at our house when Inge de Bruijn won her gold medal and that’s my first memory of watching the Olympics.”
From Tokyo Postponement To A World Record At The ISL
Photo Courtesy: deepbluemedia
Like mother, like daughter, Toussaint will represent the Netherlands in the 100m backstroke in Tokyo, five years after making her Olympic debut at Rio 2016.
Toussaint has been based at the National Training Centre Amsterdam since her return from the United States where she trained and studied at the Florida Gulf Coast University before moving on to the University of Tennessee.
She credits Tennessee coach Matt Kredich with breaking down and reconstructing her stroke followed by a subsequent ascent up the rankings.
Toussaint was 18th in the 100m backstroke in Rio and the following year was a breakthrough in terms of international medals.
There was silver behind three-time Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu in the 100 backstroke as well as two relay gold medals at the European Short-Course Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
This coincided with Toussaint’s decision to return to Amsterdam to be coached by Mark Faber since when she has won two silver relay medals at the 2018 European Championships and three titles – including the 50 and 100m backstroke – at the continental short-course showcase in December 2019.
Olympic year arrived and her form at the FINA Champions Swim Series hinted at an exciting 2020 to come.
However, the pandemic began its march across the world and the Olympics were postponed by a year to July 2021.
Toussaint accepted the decision and adjusted, setting her sights instead on the World Short-Course Championships in Abu Dhabi in December 2020 as she looked to make up for the 2018 edition where what subsequently proved to be a false positive forced her to withdraw days before the competition.
She said:
“When they (the Olympics) got cancelled in my head already there was no way they were going to go on so that was not that hard when they actually told us it was cancelled, that news didn’t come as a shock I guess.
“What I put in my mind the whole time was that with the World Short-Course Championships in December 2020, I would have at least that to have my revenge from 2018.
“I really focused on that: the Olympics are cancelled but at least we have world short course but when those got cancelled that was the hard moment for me.
“I was like, so now we have nothing, what are we going to train for?
“So when the ISL popped up that was great for me: there was no Olympics, no worlds but we have ISL, ISL is a good chance to compete, have fun.
“I am in a sport to compete: I train, I like to train, but if there were no competitions I wouldn’t be swimming. It’s not my favourite part of the sport.”
The International Swimming League took place over six weeks in October/November at the Duna Arena, Budapest.
Toussaint was in the London Roar team that finished third in the Grand Final behind winners Cali Condors and Energy Standard.
The Dutchwoman had only intended to be there for three weeks but decided to stay on for the duration of the meet as she thrived in the environment of competition and training surrounded by fellow world-class athletes.
She said:
“I always hate structure in my life because if my life is too structured I get bored really easily which is not a very good habit as a professional athlete because you need to do things over and over again to get better.
“But I really learned in this last year I need structure and I also love structure: my coach always makes fun of me that I am in a love-hate relationship with structure.
“I also do very well if I have a lot of structure.
“Competitions for me are always a way to keep it interesting: we do a three-week training block then a competition; then two weeks training and a competition, so we don’t get too much structure and have fun also.”
Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu / ISL
Time and again, Toussaint was a top performer for London Roar, so well that she had the 50m backstroke world record in her sights.
Come the semi-final and the Dutch swimmer duly chopped 0.07secs off Brazilian Etiene Medeiros’ world mark of 25.67 from 2014, to set a new record of 25.60 – a time she went on to match at the Amsterdam Christmas Meet.
She recalled:
“I was so relaxed, I was like oh well, I’m just going to race the 50, I just want to get my hand on the wall first and whatever happens happens,’ and then it happened.
“I broke the world record.
“That time when I touched the wall it was a big surprise because I had not even thought that it might happen. But in the long run I knew I could do it, I just had to do it.”
Idolising De Bruijn While Having An Olympic Champion In The Family
Inge De Bruin at Sydney 2000
Toussaint has negotiated her way through international waters to the top table of her event and she acknowledges the role her mother has played on her journey.
As a child, though, having an Olympic champion in the family had little initial impact.
She said:
“When you grow up and your dad is a dentist it’s so normal that your dad is a dentist but for most people it’s not normal.
“So the fact my mum was Olympic champion was normal!
“When I was in eighth grade – so 11 or 12 – I was asked to write a story of where I’d be in 10 years and I wrote down that I would be Olympic champion.
“That was something that I wanted to be but I think at the time I didn’t really know what it was.
“As a kid I was a bigger fan of Inge de Bruijn than I was of my own mum.
“That was normal but Inge de Bruijn I saw on TV and that was like, wow!
“It wasn’t until later that I was like ‘actually that’s really cool’.
“Not many people in the world become Olympic champion so it wasn’t until later that I knew what it actually meant to be an Olympic champion.”
De Rover turned to coaching but never interfered in her daughter’s training, instead placing her faith and trust in Kira’s coach and giving her room to thrive and develop.
Toussaint explains:
“What I really appreciated was that she never told me that what my coach was saying was wrong.
“What I see a lot with the younger kids is that my coach said this but my mum or my dad said this so now I’m confused because I don’t know who I have to listen to.
“So, my mum would ask me what did your coach say or how did you think about your race or how was it for you?
“And she never told me oh that was really bad or that was really good, she always asked me.
“I think that was a big part of my development that she let me be my own swimmer and let my coach be my coach and not that she tried to be my coach. I really appreciated that.”
Highs And Lows As Tokyo Looms
Toussaint has been on consistently top form in 2021, lowering her Dutch 100 record to 58.65 in April, a day after reducing the European 50 back mark to 27.10.
However, she endured the peaks and troughs of sport in the space of two hours and 20 minutes at the European Championships in Budapest in May.
On the eve of her 27th birthday, she appeared to have claimed silver in the 100 back behind Britain’s Kathleen Dawson to add to her 50 gold and mixed 4×100 medley second place.
Kira Toussaint: Photo Courtesy: @derencsenyiistvan
But a Swedish protest was upheld by governing body LEN and a reswim was ordered in which Toussaint finished one place outside the medals to go from second to fourth.
It was devastating for Toussaint who said “it feels unfair, it feels like I’m robbed of a silver medal, it is painful. BUT, it’s only a bump in the road. I will be back stronger.”
The 100 back is set to be a thriller.
Kaylee McKeown lowered the world record to 57.45 at the Australian trials in June, two-time world champion Kylie Masse went 57.70 at the Canadian equivalent with former world-record holder Regan Smith posting 57.92 at the USA trials.
Dawson is right up there having followed up her re-swim victory in Budapest with a European record of 58.08 on the lead-off of the British women’s medley relay that claimed gold.
Toussaint dismisses talk of medals but instead has her sights set on reaching the final come the morning of 27 July.
She said:
“If you look at different fields, the 100 back is a pretty deep one. It’s nice.
“If you are in the final everything is wide open and that’s my mentality for Tokyo.
“My goal is the Olympic final and when you’re in the final I’m the underdog, nobody expects anything from me I guess so I can race freely and when I can race free that is when I am at my best.
“That’s how I see it for Tokyo.”
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