Englefeld swimmer named Special Olympics Canada’s athlete of the year
Tia Zimmerman’s path to winning national awards and representing Canada on an international stage caught her and her family by surprise.
The 18-year-old swimmer from Englefeld who’s a part of Humboldt and District Special Olympics was recently named athlete of the year for Saskatchewan and Canada Special Olympics.
If someone were to tell Tia’s mother Tammy that her daughter would reach this stage when she began swimming nearly five years ago, she would have called them crazy.
“She came in with a life jacket, didn’t have a clue how to swim, and she started out with an aqua belt for the first year,” Tammy said. “She picked it up really quick. The moment when I saw her, and she was afraid to get into that water… she wanted someone to swim beside her. If somebody would have told me at that time that she would end up going to world’s just four years later, I would have been shocked. I’m still shocked.”
