Nottwil Grand Prix to be family affair for Manuela Schaer

“What I’m really exciting about is that my grandma can see me race again. It doesn’t put more pressure on me. It’s helpful to have my family and friends around.”

Racing on home soil is always a thrill for Manuela Schaer, but this weekend’s IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Nottwil, Switzerland, will be especially exciting since her 86-year-old grandmother has not seen her race in about three or four years.

“Most of the racing is not in Switzerland so the only chance she gets to see me racing is when we race close to my hometown,” Schaer said ahead of the fifth stop of the 2014 Grand Prix, which is slated for 16-18 May.

“She always knows when I’m racing … and she is very proud of me. She keeps all the newspaper articles about my results.”

In order to log a solid result in the 1,500m T54 race in Nottwil, however, Schaer will have to best Australia’s Madison de Rozario, Canada’s Diane Roy, Great Britain’s Shelly Woods and the USA’s Paralympic champion Shirley Reilly, who won gold at the London 2012 Paralympics after winning the Boston Marathon that same year.

All five women were finalists in the 1,500m at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France, but Reilly is finally back to form after her racing wheelchair was damaged while traveling to California for Christmas break.

Reilly said she will not focus on Schaer or any of the other competitors from Lyon 2013, but Schaer said she does like to keep tabs on her chief rivals.

“I do pay attention and I like to know with whom I’m racing,” said Schaer, who won the T54 marathon and finished second in the 400m, 800m and 5,000m races at the World Championships in Lyon last year.

“It will be a great 1,500 with Madison de Rozario from Australia, Shelly Woods and Jade Jones from Great Britain. But also our young Swiss athlete, Alexandra Helbling.”

But that does not necessarily mean she is intimidated by anyone in the field, including Reilly, when the 1,500m T54 race runs at 14:44 (CEST) on Saturday (17 May).

“It doesn’t worry me to have Shirley in the field,” she said. “(The) stronger the field, the higher the chance of a fast time and the more exciting the race is going to be to watch.”

Schaer said her parents will for sure be there supporting her, and her siblings and aunts and uncles might be there as well.

“What I’m really exciting about is that my grandma can see me race again,” she said. “It doesn’t put more pressure on me. It’s helpful to have my family and friends around.”

In the end, racing at home could never be as stressful as racing in the Rio 2016 Paralympics, where she will look to get back on the Paralympic podium for the first time since 2008.

Schaer won silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m at the Athens 2004 Paralympics before taking bronze in the 100m at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.

“Everything I do till 2016 is one more step towards Rio,” she said, “and is one more experience that will hopefully help me in 2016.”