Hometown: Northern Ontario/Toronto

Sport: Paralympic swimming

Elisabeth is a true inspiration to all. Born without arms, and just a few fingers on her limbs, she paved the way for Para athletes and female competitors. (The old-fashioned term for her rare congenital deformity is “lobster claw”).

Her family moved to Toronto from northern Ontario when she was young, where she attended Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute—located next door to Variety—and discovered the Paralympic movement. She quickly took up swimming and joined the Variety Village Flames. According to Elisabeth, she not only liked the challenge of swimming, but the challenge of being the best: “I loved the regimented aspect of having to show up, and I loved setting goals and achieving them,” she said.” Her approach worked—at the time, she was the youngest member of Canada’s Paralympic swim team, where she stayed for thirteen years, competing in the Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), and Athens (2004) games, smashing numerous national/world records along the way.

Following a phenomenal career, Elisabeth retired from professional swimming in 2005. She then took on a number of public roles as both a mentor and advocate for inclusive sport, and like professional swimming, she excelled at them all. This included being Canada’s Assistant Chef de Mission at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and the Chef de Mission at the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games. She also managed internal projects and operations for the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).

Always a cheerleader, former President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Gaetan Tardif said, “just being around Elisabeth is motivating” as she “has a natural rapport-building ability.”

In recognition of this humanitarian spirit she was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame in 2014, and awarded the Order of Canada, in 2018.

You find Elisabeth, today, in Vancouver, BC, where she enjoys teaching cycling and continues to be an advocate for “healthy living and sport opportunities for all.”