At this year’s World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in Portugal, one competitor stood out among the rest. Julia Lane, a 22-year-old from Canada, took home six medals this year!
Julia she began swimming over eight years ago, after seeing her sister’s love for the sport. She trained with coach Jodi Cortese at the Windsor Aquatic Club, and later joined the LaSalle Windsor Special Olympics Swim Team. Though Julia excels in multiple strokes, the butterfly is her strongest. At this year’s championships in Portugal, she placed first in both the 50 meter and 100 meter butterfly, in addition to capturing silver in the 50 meter freestyle, and bronze in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 800 meter freestyle.
When asked about how she felt after her performance at the competition, Julia said:
“I am proud of my times and how I represented Canada.”
The championships in Portugal saw a lot of personal bests for Julia as well; she dropped 3 seconds from her time in the 200 meter freestyle, and over 78 seconds off of her 800 meter freestyle!
Her parents are incredibly proud of her accomplishments, as her Mom Cynthia shared:
“She’s the star. She puts the time in. She’s such a fierce competitor. I’m in awe that she can do this. When she was born, I never anticipated that we would be here today.
She’s risen above any challenges and to be able to go to a meet such as the World Championships with her peers is the icing on the cake.”
But this is just the beginning of Julia’s swim career – she’s already starting to train for the 2024 World Championships, to be held in Turkey. She hopes that others can be encouraged by her story to pursue their dreams no matter what challenges they face:
“Put in the work and try your best. If somebody has Down [syndrome], they can always swim.”
