Valerie Grand'Maison has been the star of the Beijing Paralympics for Canada, winning three gold medals and setting two world records. (Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)Valérie Grand'Maison couldn’t prevent a medical condition from taking her eyesight, but she could prevent doctors from keeping her out of the swimming pool — and she did.
Grand'Maison was 12 when she began losing vision in her left eye due to macular degeneration, and three years later she began to lose sight in her right eye, as well.
Doctors told her the physical exertion of swimming was hurting her eyes and suggested she give up the sport, which she had taken up six years earlier.
She followed their orders, but not for long. Within a year, she decided to take up Paralympic swimming because, as she told a newspaper, she had missed the "excitement and stress of competition."
Three years later, Grand'Maison, 19, is one of the best Paralympic swimmers in the world. She holds five long-course world records and seven short-course world records.
The Montreal-based athlete won five gold medals at the 2006 world championships in South Africa and added a silver and a bronze.
So far, she has won three gold medals at the Beijing Paralympics.
She started by capturing gold in the 100-metre butterfly (S13) on Sunday.
The next day, she smashed her own world record in the 400-metre freestyle (S13). The race was so fast that the second-place finisher, a Russian, also broke the world record, even though she finished 8.73 seconds behind Grand'Maison.
On Wednesday, Grand'Maison captured the 100-metre freestyle (S13) and set another world record in the process.
And the best might be yet to come; Grand'Maison will compete in three more events before the Games are over.
Regardless of the outcome of those events, the Beijing Paralympics will be a highlight of her life.
"I'm speechless, and so happy. This is a dream come true for me," Grand'Maison said after her victory on Sunday. "Every single morning, I have thought about this moment, and it has finally come true."