Tia Zimmerman with her gold and bronze medals from the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. (Special Olympics Saskatchewan/Facebook)

By Aaron Schulze

Sports Year in Review

Sports Year in Review: Englefeld swimmer is Special Olympics Canada’ athlete of the year

Dec 25, 2019 | 9:00 AM

northeastNOW is taking a look back at the biggest and most interesting sports stories of 2019, as selected by our sports reporters Mat Barrett and Aaron Schulze:

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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.

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“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.”

Impressive performances at the provincial and national stage led Tia to the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. She brought home gold in the team relay, won bronze in the 800-metre freestyle, and even snuck in enough time to fulfill a dream of riding a camel.

“I was very nervous the entire time,” Tia told northeastNOW. “It was fun, but it’s also tiring.”

With 2020 being a qualifying year, Tia will be able to rest up while staying busy and active with floor hockey, soccer, and swimming once a week. She’ll attend one Special Olympics meet before the 2020 Saskatchewan Summer Games, when her heavy-duty training will begin again.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow