Special Olympian “born to be in the water”, captures gold, silver

Zoe Barnes is making waves in the world of competitive sports.

The Newmarket native, who currently lives in Beeton and trains at the BWG Leisure Centre, edged out the competition to take home three medals at the Special Olympics Provincial Spring Games, which were held in Waterloo from May 23-26.

More than 750 athletes competed in events including basketball, powerlifting, rhythmic gymnastics, 10-pin bowling and Barnes’ specialty, swimming.

She took silver in the 400m freestyle with a time of 7:28.28, as well as two gold medals in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle with times of 16:29.63 and 29 :05,07.

“It’s a proud moment and you have to embrace it,” Barnes said of her achievement, adding that she was “pretty excited” to find out she had medaled in all three events.

For non-swimmers, Barnes explained that 800 meters is 32 lengths of a standard 25-metre pool, and 1,500 is almost double 60 lengths.

“You have to learn to pace yourself,” she said. “At the end, I looked up at my time and I was pretty shocked because I was over two minutes faster than last year’s time in the 1,500.”

Although she was impressed, her swim coach, Wendy Cimanro, was not surprised by how well Barnes performed.

“Zoe goes above and beyond in training and sets her goals and doesn’t let any adversity stand in her way,” she said.

That training routine includes 1.5-hour sessions five days a week at Bradford’s leisure centre, two in the water and three upstairs in the exercise room, plus another hour-long session with trainers Cimanro and Crest’s Duane Carson Club of Newmarket at St. Andrews College in Aurora one day a week from October through May.

A decorated journey

All this hard work comes as part of a 24-year journey for Barnes, who said he joined the Crest Club when he was eight years old but has been swimming for as long as he can remember, including some fond memories from summer camp.

“I was born to be in the water, so I loved the water from a very young age,” she said.

Barnes has a medal collection to show for it, and although she was too humble to reveal the full number, she said she has medals from the 2008 Spring Games in Pickering and the 2010 Summer National Games in London.

She also recalled traveling to Antigonish, NS to compete at the 2018 Summer National Games after qualifying for the 2016 Provincial Games in Guelph.

With all of her accomplishments, Barnes is quick to share the credit with the coaches, trainers and staff at the BWG Recreation Center.

“I just want to say, Thank you to the Crest Club for helping me achieve my goals and without this facility here today, without the lifeguards, floor staff and coaches, I would not be able to achieve my goals. I prepared for myself,” she said.

Those goals even extend beyond her swimming skills, as she also won a bronze medal in alpine skiing during the 2013 World Winter Games in South Korea, where Barnes said she managed a qualifying time of so good that it was removed from the intermediate class. in the advanced class.

“To be there in this moment was spectacular,” she said. “I have lifelong friends from all over the world now.”

Overcoming the odds

Cimanro is always happy when Barnes gets through ski season in one piece to continue swimming training, and while Barnes enjoys training and competing in both sports, she said one of her favorite aspects of swimming is how she helps her cope with her disability.

“To be honest with you, with my intellectual disability, it keeps me out of the hospital and keeps my right-sided weakness stronger,” she said.

Born with a brain injury, Barnes explained that she lives with epilepsy that can cause debilitating seizures with “stroke-like symptoms” that can lead to months of regaining strength on the right side of her body.

Zoe’s father Colin Barnes said he and his wife were “very proud” of Zoe for such a “great achievement” in bringing home three medals.

“We were told as children that he would never walk or talk,” he said, but added that they never gave up. “We’ve spent many, many times building goals for her when she has a medical setback, building her health and strength and stamina.”

Colin explained that Special Olympics has been important to the family, not only because it supports Zoe’s competitive goals, but also provides the “tremendous” benefit of a social network and even the opportunity to travel – both nationally and internationally.

When it comes to the source of Zoe’s swimming ability, both her natural talent and the skills she has worked to develop, Colin admitted it doesn’t run in the family.

“We are persistent as a family,” he said. “We try to do what we can, whether it’s volunteering or the sport itself, but Zoe’s coaches have to be credited in both swimming and land training and skiing.”

As a father, he is grateful for all the fundraising efforts and charities that support Special Olympics.

“It’s amazing when you see what the athletes get out of it,” he said.

Looking to the future

For now, Zoe is taking a well-deserved break, giving her time to enjoy some of her hobbies.

When she’s not in the pool or on the hill, Zoe also enjoys photography, spending time with her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, helping out at horse and dog shows, and socializing with friends.

The family is also making time for a trip to the UK, and in the future Zoe hopes she may have the chance to travel more to Europe and maybe one day visit Australia and New Zealand.

In the meantime, after he returns to Canada, he will prepare for more training in the hope that the national team will be ready to compete in Medicine Hat, Alta., in 2026.

If all goes well there, Zoe could have the opportunity to tick yet another international location off her bucket list, as the world games are set to be held in Chile in 2027, which would be the first time in the 55 years of the organization. history that the world games will be held in the southern hemisphere.

When asked what advice she had for other would-be Special Olympians, Zoe referred to the organization’s sports oath: Let me win, and if I can’t win, let me be brave in the attempt.

Special Olympics provides year-round Olympic-style sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

For more information, visit the Special Olympics (specialolympics.org) or Special Olympics Canada (specialolympics.ca) websites.