At the Canada Games swimming meet in St. John’s, athletes who look like they’re old enough to head off to college dive into the pool to race their best.
Yellowknife’s Louisa Henry accomplished her goal. After swimming the 50-metre freestyle, she raced in a preliminary heat in the 50-metre breaststroke — her favourite event — and won.
Not bad for an 11-year-old who just finished Grade Six.
Henry had a feeling she was the youngest of the 2,000 athletes at the games, but CBC News confirmed to her that she’s going head-to-head against competitors three to five years older.
“It feels really like a little weird because everyone’s, like, so [much] older,” she said.
“Like whoa, it makes me feel fast.”
The preteen has plenty of athletic inspiration. She looks up to swimming superstar Summer McIntosh, who was already turning heads when she was Henry’s age.
She also has role models closer to home – her two older sisters, Beatrice, 17, who’s on the soccer squad, and Josephine, who’s also a swimmer. All three girls made Team Northwest Territories at the games.
Age ain’t nothing but a number. That’s the spirit that Louisa Henry embodies. She’s 11, and will start Grade 7 in the fall, but is happy to be competing against people who are several years older than her. The CBC’s Elizabeth Chiu caught up with the swimmer at the Aquarena in St. John’s.
She said it’s a proud moment for her family.
“It makes me feel really good that I can compete with them, and be, like, with them in this huge event that I’m in,” Henry said.
She celebrates her 12th birthday in a few weeks, but Henry said that won’t be the highlight of her summer.
“I’d say Canada Games [is] because I get to turn another year older like every year, but I won’t get to go to Canada Games every year.”
