Samantha Ryan is used to looking to other athletes for inspiration. What she’s not used to is others looking to her.
“I’m always kind of brushing it off my shoulder, like ‘yeah, it’s not really a big deal,’ and I guess I’ve never really thought of myself as being an inspiration to other people,” she said.
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But it is, in fact, a big deal. Just two years after competing in her first international meet the 17-year-old member of the Saskatoon Goldfins is swimming on the biggest stage of all at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2015, Ryan won a silver medal in the women’s 100-metre butterfly S10 at the Para Pan-Am Games. She followed that with a fifth-place finish at the International Paralympic Committee World Championships. Since then, her training has taken on a whole new purpose.
“Before, I would just tell myself, ‘it’s okay, everyone has an off day,’ which is true, but I started to really make sure I was working hard on those off days, and making sure that I wasn’t just working on getting stronger, but getting technically better as well, and taking the littler things into consideration,” she explained.
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The hard work paid off in April when Ryan qualified for Canada’s Paralympic team, an accomplishment that still hadn’t fully sunk in until she received a special gift from a family member.
“My aunt sent shirts. They’re Canada shirts and she got our last name printed on the back and she got one for my parents and my sisters, and I was taking pictures and I was kind of realizing, ‘they’re coming to Rio to watch me.'”
Ryan’s family aren’t the only ones watching. So are other young swimmers who hope to one day realize their own athletic dreams the same way Ryan once looked to those that came before her.
“It makes me want to push myself that much harder to know that there are people who look up to me as an inspiration, someone as a role model, so it really makes me want to work harder to represent myself and the province and the country well.”
No matter the result, it’s safe to say she’s already accomplished that goal.
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