Tokyo Bound: Camille Bérubé selected to third Paralympic Games team

Camille Bérubé is one of seven athletes that were added to the Tokyo Paralympic Games team by Swimming Canada on May 11. The news means that Bérubé, who graduated from uOttawa with a degree in communications and was a member of the Gee-Gees swim team, is a three-time Paralympic Games team member.

Bérubé, who now represents Natation Gatineau, competed at the 2012 London Paralympics in four different events, finishing 11th in both the 100-metre backstroke and the 200-metre IM. She captured three medals (a silver and two bronze) at the 2015 Parapan Am Games, and then competed at the 2016 Rio Paralympics where she placed ninth in the 100m breaststroke.

She has been selected for Tokyo based on her performance at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, England. That event, which took place in September, provides the most recent international results available for use in selection, as it was the last to take place before the 2020 global pandemic. Bérubé reached three finals in four individual events, including the 200-m individual medley SM7 (6th), 100-m backstroke S7 (7th) and 100-m breaststroke SB6 (8th). S

Bérubé was diagnosed with cancer at birth and started swimming at age eight because she wanted to be involved in sport. The Montreal native quickly rose through the ranks to compete at an international level. At age fourteen, Bérubé swam a 1:28.70 time in the S8 100-metre backstroke, earning a bronze medal at her Para swimming World Championships debut. The time was just a half second off of the Canadian record.

She became the Canadian record holder in that event, and still holds the Canadian short course record and long course records in the 400 IM, as well as the long course 200 backstroke and 200 breaststroke records.