Don’t Marginalize me
A story of Resistance
Words: Nicole P, Toronto
It’s 2024 and the thought of discrimination, sexism, and ableism in sport should be long gone right? Unfortunately, not. A 13-year-old swimmer still faces this today. Ava has been swimming competitively for seven years and recently decided to join her school’s swim team. Her story describes the battle that girls like her have to face every day to achieve one goal: playing sports.
Ava was born with a slight vision impairment. In swimming it's called class 12 vision, where she can recognize the shape of a hand and has some ability to see. Her parents thought that living in Canada - with its strong history of swimming - it would be good if Ava learned to swim. So, from the young age of six, she competed in swimming races. Ava loved the sport, not only because it was one of the few sports available for her, but also because she didn’t feel like she was different from anyone else. You don’t need to see when you're swimming, you just need to keep going, one breath at a time.
Ava slowly made her way through the ranks of competitive swimming with teams outside of school and decided to join the school swim team. However, she would require some extra accommodations, like a tapper to help indicate when the lane is ending and when to turn around. She didn’t believe this would be an issue, because it had always been available to her. This was not the case when she tried out for the swim team. She was told initially that they were full, and that Ava should come back next year. Ava didn’t back down, mostly because it was ridiculous. How could a tryout be full? She started to question herself, maybe she wasn’t good at swimming, maybe her talent was all in her head and her low vision was the reason nobody wanted her to be on the team. Her self-esteem dropped, and even her trainer outside of school noticed a decrease in her performance.
She then asked some of her friends who tried out who told her that the coach already felt that there were too many girls on the team, and having to go find a tapper, and do the paperwork was ‘too much hassle and not worth it’. Ava didn’t know how to react. It was a relief to her because the issue wasn’t that she was a bad swimmer. But that opened a whole new can of worms. She wasn’t being evaluated on her skills but on her gender and physical disability. Ava brought up the issue to her parents, who escalated it to the people in charge and that coach was fired. Ava later found out that he had believed that Ava had no spot on his team because she wasn’t like all the other kids. According to the coach, she required too much support and it would be ‘unfair’ to other racers since she got a tapper. He also felt that his team consisted of enough girls and didn’t assess based on skill, but on gender.
This was a tough hit on Ava’s confidence, and it affected her power in the pool. Ava is now on the swim team, and has regained confidence. However, just because her story played out well and was uncovered, this isn’t the case for everyone. There are hundreds of girls and people with disabilities who are overlooked, pressured away and simply dismissed from participating in sports.
Ava’s story is a powerful reminder to all of us about what countless athletes have fought for: equality in sport.
Her story proves that the fight for inclusivity and equal opportunities
in sports is far from over.
As we move forward, it is important to continue to fight for all necessary accommodations and support systems that empower athletes like Ava, ensuring that all children, regardless of their factors they can’t control, can pursue their dreams in sports without facing discrimination. Only through our collective awareness and action can we hope to create a more equitable environment in athletics, where every athlete is valued and given the chance to thrive.
Nicole P is a Toronto-based participant in Youth Media Forward: meet the Toronto participants here