Donovan Tildesley sings "Oh Canada" with the flag draped over this shoulder at the Canadian flag raising ceremony Thursday in Beijing. (Mike Ridewood/Canadian Press)

The cheer from the Canadian swimmers was loud and authentic when Donovan Tildesley's name was announced as the Canadian Paralympic team flag-bearer.

Many people — including Donovan himself — thought that he was the underdog among the list of three finalists for the honour. The truth is, there was not a bad choice among them. The other two finalists were wheelchair racing legend Chantal Petitclerc and Boccia gold medalist Paul Gauthier - both of whom are well over a decade older.

So, I'm left thinking how unique this 24-year-old from Vancouver must be to earn this honour. And once his nerves were settled, that's exactly what he called it, an honour.

Formidable challengers

He also called Petitclerc and Gauthier formidable challengers and you could tell that he meant it. Canadian swim coach Craig McCord described Tildesley as charismatic, animated and determined. I would add humble and level-headed to that list of positive traits.

Here is a young man, at the peak of his athletic career, on maybe the proudest day of his life, who wanted to engage this reporter in a discussion about the nuances of radio broadcasting while we waited for our interview to begin.

Keep in mind that he is the part-owner of his own radio station (88.7 Whistler FM) and clearly excels in many forms of communication.

Athletes like Tildesley, Petitclerc and Gauthier all have something in common. It's the knack of making people forget about disability because their talent and personality shine so much brighter. They are not afraid of their disability or talking about it, but it is simply a part of who they are, not what defines them.

Impressive résumé

Tildesley's Paralympic résumé includes two silver medals and two bronze medals. One of those bronze medals was won as a 16-year-old in Sydney, eight years ago. He won five gold medals last year at the Para-Pan American Games in Brazil and recently set a world record, so you get the sense that he could certainly add to the collection here in Beijing.

But that is not what drives him. His goal here is "to swim fast and have fun" and he issued a challenge to all of his Canadian teammates to have fun as well and to do it while they were "kicking asses and taking names." Contrary to the common wisdom, this young man includes fun and high performance in the same breath.

It's worked for him.

Tildesley races in the S11 swim category, which means that he and all of his competitors are completely blind. But, I would argue that he has better than 20-20 vision when it comes to seeing the lane markers on the journey of life.

He speculated that the Beijing Games might be his last and I think that's a pity.