Patient Stories Project
Breaking Barrier: Trinity’s Journey to Paralympic Fencing and Self-Discovery
Written by: Trinity Lowthian and Dawn Richards.
This year has been a big one for Trinity. She is a young adult who will complete her Honours Bachelor of Food Nutrition and Sciences degree at the University of Ottawa, and in September 2024, she represented Canada at the Paralympics in wheelchair fencing. These were Trinity’s first Paralympic games and she placed fifth with Canada’s best-ever wheelchair fencing result at a Paralympic Games.
In high school, Trinity got sick and spent months on end in the hospital. Growing up, she’d always been a ‘sporty person’ who was active, competitive, and involved in a lot of sports. In grade 10, Trinity left all able-bodied sports due to her health, and went through a time where she was very sick and unable to be very active. In her second year of university, she started to get back into sports again.
As Trinity got back into sports, the physical accessibility of spaces to accommodate her wheelchair became a barrier. There were lots of sports she wanted to try, but simply couldn’t due to accessibility issues. She was already familiar with parasports since her aunt was a Paralympic downhill skier. Some of the sports she loved when she was able-bodied were not fun for her after she became disabled. Alongside wheelchair fencing, she also tried para cross country skiing, sledge hockey, and wheelchair rugby, but it was wheelchair fencing that matched her abilities the best.
Trinity was the first para-fencer at her fencing club. She reached out to the club to see if they were open to working with her, and feels fortunate that the coaches there were familiar with working with para-fencers and even had experience at the Paralympic level. At the start, Trinity would go online to see how other para-athletes trained and to learn from their programs. She was the only para-fencer with her disability in Canada so she and her coaches were pioneering training methods and tactics as they didn’t have a path to follow. Trinity has opened doors for other para-fencers at the club and she coaches other para-fencers. In Ottawa there is now an Abilities Centre that is helping people interested in para-sport build their own network and try out new sports
Trinity’s experiences related to managing her health and balancing that with being active are something she’s more used to dealing with now. When she was training for the Paralympics, she underwent surgery two months before the games and could not fence for a month afterwards. It was a slow process to get back to training and one she learned to trust. During that time her coaches encouraged her to take care of her mental health while her body recovered. They helped her see that for her situation, it was the quality of practice not the quantity or length of time of the practice that counted. She acknowledges that she needs to manage very fluctuating energy levels, even though her brain wants her to be physically active, she knows it can be counterproductive, and she is finding ways to negotiate with herself through those situations.
Trinity has learned a lot about physical activity over the years. She appreciates competitive solo sports, where she is not relying on a team. Training at a club offers her social and physical benefits and she feels she sleeps better when she’s active. Given her personality, she’s motivated by setting and achieving goals – no matter if it’s a big (competing at the Paralympics) or a small (training 3 times a week or gaining a new skill) goal. She views sport as a means to achieve goals, and helps the athletes she coaches meet their own goals.
For Trinity, trying a sport or activity doesn’t mean committing to it. She used to be about committing all the way, but now it’s about trying things, and if she doesn’t enjoy those activities, she doesn’t have to continue. Trinity says that ‘freedom’ has helped her stick with or try new sports and exercises. She no longer feels ‘bound’ to doing exercise or activities. Given her experiences in parasport, she encourages people to try as much as possible that is available for them. She says you don’t know what is right for you and your disability or ability until you try a new sport, activity or exercise.
Trinity shares that being involved in adaptive sports means being your own advocate. For her a resource called Becoming Para Ready was helpful so she could make sure that the proper structures were in place to support her participation. This type of resource is also helpful for coaches who are becoming para-ready or coaching athletes with a disability
