Conrad became paralyzed – competes in the Paralympics

Training 20 hours a week, getting up at 04:45 every morning and not infrequently double sessions with gym training. Conrad Hildebrand started swimming early in life and at the age of ten he began to invest properly. But the career quickly took an unexpected turn.

“Can’t move fingers”

A month before his 17th birthday, Conrad had just been on his way to a morning workout when he got the idea to jump out of a school window and do a “nice jump”.

– I took aim from inside the classroom and shot away with my hands, but got stuck with my feet in the window frame. I landed head first, straight into the ground and broke my sixth cervical vertebra, he says and continues:

– I am paralyzed from the middle of the chest down. I can’t move my fingers at all.

Started swimming again

Understanding the extent of his fracture was not easy for Conrad. Life had become different and at first he felt no desire to swim.

– Swimming was not something I wanted to return to. It didn’t feel the same anymore, he explains.

But since going back to the pool about three years ago, he’s taken time to get used to and comfortable in his new body.

– It feels really good now. It feels like I have regained something that I have been missing for a long time. I am comfortable with my new body.

Competing with love in the Paralympics

It’s not just the love of swimming that has gripped Conrad’s interest lately. Nicola St Clair Maitland, also a paraswimmer, started training together with Conrad in the Södertälje swimming club already three years ago. It was during the EC that they realized that they liked each other a little more than just as friends.

– It makes a big difference, says Nicola, who is also selected for the Paralympics in swimming, and continues:

– If you have a bad race, it’s the worst feeling. To then have someone who says it’s okay and comforts – that’s how we can help each other, she concludes.