HARTFORD, CT, January 20, 2012 – By almost any measure, Kristin Duquette ’13, is a typical Trinity College student. She takes a full course load, is fiercely competitive, lives on campus and eats at Mather Hall, is majoring in human rights, has a legislative internship lined up for the spring semester, and hopes one day to be a lawyer.
But there is one thing that sets her apart from her contemporaries. She has facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, a condition that causes weakness and loss of skeletal muscle around the eyes, mouth, shoulders, upper arms and lower legs. As such, she scoots around Trinity’s 100-acre campus in a wheelchair.
Oh, yes. There is one other thing. Duquette swims, and not just for fun. She’s a world-class swimmer who has set her sights on the Paralympics in London this summer. The qualifying trials are in June in North Dakota, and she will attempt to make the U.S. team in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle.
“I have to be in the top seven in the world to go [to London],” she said in a recent interview. “I feel like I have a really, really good shot.”
Duquette is not one prone to exaggeration. She has a bushelful of awards, trophies and medals to her credit, having participated not just in swim competitions, but in triathlons and Half Ironman competitions. She is also a much sought-after speaker.
The Muscular Dystrophy Association named Duquette, of East Hartford, the recipient of its 2010 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award for Connecticut. She was selected “for her outstanding work on behalf of others with disabilities and her determination to excel in the face of personal challenges.”
Grit and perseverance have always been character traits. When Duquette was 6, after she had been swimming for three years, she decided that some day she would like to compete in the Olympics. But when she was 9 and her gait seemed awkward and she was chronically fatigued, her disorder was diagnosed. She also was found to have scoliosis. For a time she gave up swimming, instead turning her attention to the violin, playing with the Connecticut Youth Symphony Orchestra.
But when she was a sophomore at East Catholic High School in Manchester, the pool beckoned again. She decided once more to give swimming a try “to see what my body could do on its own.” She found that she could be highly successful doing what she loved.
Upon graduation from high school, Duquette headed to Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she matriculated for one year. For various reasons, it turned out not to be the right situation for her, so she decided to transfer. Trinity seemed a logical choice given that it wasn’t far from her home.
“It was the best decision that I ever made,” she says. “There are so many opportunities here and I’m really loving college because I’m at the right school. It was a blessing in disguise.”
She lived at home during her sophomore year, but has been living on campus (Summit South) since September. Her daily weekday routine goes something like this: Up at 6 a.m. when her mother, Dee, picks her up and takes her to the Cornerstone Aquatic Center in West Hartford, where she has trained since she was a high school senior. She’s generally in the pool for 60 to 90 minutes and also uses the stationary bicycle. Duquette is back on campus by lunchtime and attends classes in the afternoon.
On the weekends, she trains with the Central Connecticut Aquatic Team at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford.
”
In fact, last year was a good one competitively for Duquette. She traveled to the University of Minnesota and Gatineau, Canada, for national Paralympic swim meets, and went to San Diego and completed a Half Ironman competition, which included an ocean swim of 1.2 miles.
“That was awesome and one of the best accomplishments I’ve ever done especially considering [that] several months later I found out I had an irritated nerve impacting the ability to fully use my right arm,” she said.
Due to the limited use of her legs in the water, Duquette has been reclassified. But she’s already had outstanding qualifying times and is internationally ranked. Now she’s working towards achieving the U.S. times required for the Paralympics in August. Quitting is not part of Duquette’s lexicon.
No matter what happens, she says, “I’m still going to live my life and not let anything stop me from doing what I want to do.”
For more information about Duquette, please visit: www.kristinduquette.com or http://kristinduquette.blogspot.com/