The past few years have been an absolute blur for Saskatoon Lasers Swim Club para swimmer Nikita Ens.
She’s just two years removed from making her Paralympic debut for Canada in Tokyo, where she earned a pair of top-10 finishes and is coming off fifth and sixth-place showings at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championship in Manchester, England.
It’s just part of her globetrotting from pool to pool since joining Team Canada.
“Before paralysis, I had never been off of North America,” said Ens. “Now I’ve seen many different countries, experienced many different cultures and met so many people.”
Ens has made strides in her swimming abilities since Tokyo, as the 34-year-old has since become a Canadian record holder twice breaking the SB2 classification mark in the 50 metre breaststroke.
She also captured six gold medals at December’s Ken Demchuk International Invitational meet, which is setting her up nicely for next summer as Ens looks to qualify for her second Paralympics in Paris.
“That is the goal competing in Paris and moving up the world rankings,” said Ens. “That’s what the goal is.”
Training for Ens will ramp up over the course of the next year to get her ready for the Canadian trials in May before the Paralympics get underway next August.
Her coaches say Ens has been very successful at applying feedback, which is leading to her strong results in 2022 and 2023.
“She’s in a good spot for it and she just needs to make sure she’s practicing the things she needs to do in a race everyday at practice,” said Lasers assistant coach Ryan Jones. “That’s really what the focus is right here. We know what needs to take place and we need to keep looking on how to improve. But we need to practice it all the time.”
Ens is approaching the 10-year anniversary of her paralysis, which occurred in February 2014 after she was involved in a crash with an impaired driver which left her a paraplegic.
More importantly, she’s since celebrated the six-year anniversary of her swimming career, which she’s made the most of in getting to meet others who have similar stories.
“Para swimming at some of these world meets is really inspiring because it’s people from different countries, different languages and different cultures,” said Ens. “We’re so different but yet we have this unity and it’s really encouraging and inspiring.”
Even on days when it’s hard to get out of the wheelchair, those moments in the pool are keeping Ens swimming and reaching for the wall — something that could help her secure a plane ticket to Paris this time next year.
“Sometimes the passion is not always there,” said Ens. “So it’s a timely encouragement that if you press through those valleys and set goals, it doesn’t have to be world records but just personal goals meeting those and then resetting and doing it again, it’s kind of how the fire keeps burning.”
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