A Swimmer’s Long, Winding Lane Back to the Paralympics

For Rudy Garcia-Tolson, it took a journey across the country, then halfway back again; the good will of a Hollywood actor; and a good time at the trials in his final shot at a spot.

He spent 15 months crisscrossing the country in search of water to train in, landing, at one point, in the actor David Duchovny’s backyard pool. But for the Paralympic swimmer Rudy Garcia-Tolson, the road to the Tokyo Games ended up even more twisted. There was a last-minute dash to Brazil to fulfill one aspect of the sport’s qualifying process and a last-ditch chance at the selection meet to make the time needed to join the team. “After all the ups and downs of the last year, it all came down to my last race,” Garcia-Tolson said this week.