{"id":10565,"date":"2022-06-22T12:41:02","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10565"},"modified":"2022-06-22T12:41:02","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:41:02","slug":"you-go-through-the-suffering-of-being-stared-at-looked-at-pointed-at-but-at-the-end-of-the-day-youre-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10565","title":{"rendered":"‘You go through the suffering of being stared at, looked at, pointed at, but at the end of the day, you\u2019re you’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated at 14.19<\/em><\/p>\n

NICOLE TURNER WAS seven years old when she was diagnosed with hypochondroplasia, one of over 200 different types of dwarfism.<\/p>\n

It is caused by a mutation in the FGFR3 gene and affects the conversion of cartilage in to bone growth.<\/p>\n

According to littlepeopleuk.org, a child with dwarfism is born once per 25,000 births, while very few doctors know much about the various dwarfism conditions.<\/p>\n

It can be inherited from one or both parents, though 80% of people with dwarfism have average height parents and siblings, and it is sometimes attributed to\u00a0a genetic change at conception.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was born, I was a really sick baby,\u201d Turner tells The42<\/em>. \u201cMy mum\u2019s a nurse, so obviously, she\u2019d know her stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mam always told the nurses: \u2018There\u2019s something wrong with her, this isn\u2019t a normal child\u2019 and everything. They were like: \u2018No, she\u2019s fine.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI went for several blood tests and scans, and eventually, when I was seven, they found out I had dwarfism. When I got this information, my mam and dad thought I was the only little person in Ireland. My mum was so scared. She didn\u2019t know what to do with me.<\/p>\n

Turner continues: \u201cLittle People of Ireland have a convention once a year where all the little people in Ireland get together. There\u2019s a party and everything. And people are in the same boat as you. You go through the suffering of being stared at, looked at, pointed at, but at the end of the day, you\u2019re you. So you can\u2019t change anything. And I don\u2019t want to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first person that Turner met who also had dwarfism was Sin\u00e9ad Burke, a popular Irish writer and activist, who last year became a contributing editor at fashion magazine Vogue UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer mam and dad own the Little People of Ireland, so they organise it every year,\u201d Turner explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found out I had dwarfism,\u00a0Sin\u00e9ad and all the little people came to visit me in my house. She just reassured me that it is going to be okay and it\u2019ll all work out in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think at the time the world\u2019s going to end, but it\u2019s not. You do get great support. So if you want to do something, do it. Don\u2019t let anyone tell you \u2018you can\u2019t,\u2019 just because you\u2019re a bit smaller than them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Sin\u00e9ad\u2019s trying to do at the moment, she\u2019s trying to make it a norm to see a small person walking down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click Here: lions rugby online store<\/a><\/p>\n

\n British star Ellie Simmonds inspired Nicole Turner to become a swimmer.<\/p>\n

Source: Steve Parsons<\/p>\n

Like Burke, Turner also tries to be a role model for little people everywhere.\u00a0She herself was inspired to become an athlete by\u00a0Ellie Simmonds, the British Paralympian who won two gold medals in the Beijing Games in 2008 \u2014 the same year Turner was diagnosed with dwarfism.<\/p>\n

A year later, she met Simmonds at the World Championships and dreamed of one day emulating her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw her and her gold medal, I was so inspired. I was like: \u2018I want one of these when I\u2019m older.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, every little kid\u2019s going to say that and I didn\u2019t realise the commitment required. When I was younger, if I was asked to swim seven times a week, I\u2019d be like, \u2018no chance, I\u2019m not doing that\u2019. But swimming was always something I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was mad. I\u2019ve been looking up to Ellie since 2008. Then, in 2015, I started competing against her, so I was just thinking: \u2018God, I looked up to you, and now you\u2019re on the block beside me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner\u2019s rise has been pretty remarkable. By the age of 12, she was on the Irish senior team. From there, she won two silvers and a bronze medal at the European Championships and at 14, she competed in the Rio Paralympics, qualifying via the 2015 World Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone around me was getting all nervous and stressed about their races. But I was just treating it like anything else. I just went out and had a bit of fun. So that was very serious, but I didn\u2019t take it very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed out on a medal by half a second. If that was now, I would have bawled my eyes out, whereas then I was only 14, it was my first Paralympic Games, so I was fifth in the world at the Paralympics \u2014 not many people can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still only 17, Turner has taken a year off school with the 2020 Paralympics on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The regular journeys up to the National Aquatic Centre from\u00a0Portarlington are consequently less pressurised given the extra free time she has.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been swimming up in the NAC seven times a week now since the middle of second year. When I did that, we\u2019d train at 5 to 7 every evening. Originally, my school didn\u2019t finish until 10 to 4. So it\u2019d mean me leaving school at 10 to 4 and I wouldn\u2019t get up here on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat down with my school and said would it be a problem, and they let me finish early. They let me off a class every day. I finished school 40 minutes early, so I could come up to train. And then last year, I was in Transition Year, so that was a nice break.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, I should be going into fifth year. It just wouldn\u2019t have been possible to get off early and come to swimming and do three hours, so I just decided it was best to take off the year, focus on my swimming and then go back to school after Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just out of my control, and I had to deal with it. It was hard, but I got through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having to study, I get about 12 hours sleep a night. Swimming\u2019s my number one now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the negative side. I don\u2019t get to go out or see my friends that often. But my friends are very understanding and they\u2019ll try to work around me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source: paralympicsire\/YouTube<\/p>\n

The teen\u2019s success has continued in 2019. She was on the original longlist for RT\u00c9 Sportsperson of the Year and also got a nomination for Young Sportsperson of the Year. She was additionally named Para-Swimmer of the Year at the Swim Ireland awards, while her coach,\u00a0Dave Malone, was rewarded with the Performance Coach of the Year accolade.<\/p>\n

Her standout achievement this year was undoubtedly a bronze medal at the World Para Swimming Championships in London in the 50m Butterfly S6 following a spectacular come-from-behind finish.<\/p>\n

She had actually been ranked second in the world going into the event, but Chinese athlete Jiang Yuyan\u2019s\u00a0sudden arrival on the scene threw a spanner in the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had just come into my classification,\u201d Turner explains. \u201cThroughout that week, she was breaking records in other events and she actually broke the world record [in my event], but I still got a bronze medal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Ellie Robinson also finished ahead of Turner, claiming silver, but the Irish athlete makes no secret of the fact that her aim is to win gold in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Ireland are not yet actually guaranteed any places at the Paralympics in her event, though the situation will become clearer in February, when more team slots are confirmed dependent on world rankings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Turner, it is hoped Tokyo will be the culmination of years of dedication and practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s five to seven from Monday to Friday. And then on a Saturday morning, I\u2019m up at 5.20 for a 7am training session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do about 14 hours in the pool a week and then three hours of gym on top of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the youngster\u2019s profile rising in conjunction with her growing list of achievements, Turner says people stopping, staring and pointing in bewilderment is no longer as commonplace as before.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays, no. Because I\u2019m known to people. I\u2019m not known as a small person, I\u2019m known as a Paralympic swimmer. But it can be such a negative. Especially young children, they don\u2019t really understand. They\u2019re like: \u2018Oh look, that\u2019s a little woman.\u2019 They\u2019re very confused why I am a human that\u2019s smaller than I should be. But that\u2019s just a lack of knowledge, they don\u2019t want to bully me or be against me, they\u2019re just very confused why I\u2019m like that and they\u2019re not.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated at 14.19 NICOLE TURNER WAS seven years old when she was diagnosed with hypochondroplasia, one of over 200 different types of dwarfism. It is caused by a mutation in the FGFR3 gene and affects the conversion of cartilage in to bone growth. According to littlepeopleuk.org, a child with dwarfism is born once per 25,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}