Courtesy of Creative Mornings, Vancouver, Canada.
Marianne Wieland de Alvarez of the Honu Para Swim Team in Vancouver, Canada was born in Mexico and moved to Canada in 1987 with her husband, raising four daughters.
In 2014, she organized the first Para-Relay to swim across the English Channel, six years after she started coaching Honu, a para swim team in Vancouver. She has coached at the 2012 London Paralympics and the 2024 Paris Paralympics as well as at the 2015 Toronto Para Pan American Games and is currently coaching Mexican para swimmer Pedro Rangel Haro won the silver medal in the 1.5 km World Cup Para Open Water in Cerdeña, Italy this week (S3 – S6 category, finishing in 29:31.40).
Coach Wieland was proud of her swimmer, “This is the first time Mexico reached the podium in a para open water swimming event. However, for Pedro, open water swimming is not new because in 2018 he became the first Paralympic athlete to swim across the English Channel in 15 hours 48 minutes. At the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, he won gold in the 100m breaststroke SB5 and a few weeks ago, he represented Mexico in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.”
Sardinia, Italy hosted the second World Para Swimming Open Water Cup between September 20th and 22nd. For more information and results, visit here.
The thoughtful coach shared her thoughts and perspectives in a past interview with Creative Mornings.
Creative Mornings: How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
Marianne Alvarez: My creativity is to dream and to believe I can achieve, to never give up and with passion follow the purpose in my life. We only live once, and I am certain that there is no dream too big or too crazy to pursue.
Creative Mornings: Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
Marianne Alvarez: In myself, I believe in always sharing a smile and helping others. I believe health is our biggest treasure we have no matter who you are, where you are or what you do.
Creative Mornings: What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d know as a young person?
Marianne Alvarez: Don’t trust everyone, we all have different values in life.
Creative Mornings: Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at Creative Mornings?
Marianne Alvarez: Sunny Lowry (1911-2008) I had the pleasure to meet her at the English Channel. Now I would like to talk to her about what we share in common and why we do what we do. Her legendary swimming achievements, her consistent contribution to our sport.
Creative Mornings: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Marianne Alvarez: There are two equally crazy things I have done in my life, and both have actually inspired and created my creative moment, which have influenced in who I am and what I do.
- Swimming the English Channel at age 24 and starting a new adventure 29 years later.
- To leave everything I knew behind at the moment when I had the most opportunities in my life, to start a new adventure in Canada.
Creative Mornings: What are you proudest of in your life?
Marianne Alvarez: What I am proudest of is raising four women who want to make the world a better place, who live and share the values that have inspired our family and to know that they are not only sisters, they are best friends for life.
Creative Mornings: What is the one question we haven’t asked that you want to answer?
Marianne Alvarez: I would like to be asked what my next crazy project is! I want to talk about the Honu Center and the work I want to continue. It’s a a center to help People with a disability through the water to improve their health and “feel the freedom water can give us all.
© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“
A World Open Water Swimming Federation project.