By Sarah Tone, Communications Coordinator

After her hip surgery, Bethany Johnson wasn’t sure she would be able to compete in the upcoming 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, AB. Johnson was on Team Toba’s wheelchair basketball team, and was determined to play, mere months after the procedure.

“I actually had to go to a follow-up with my surgeon in Montreal just one week before going to Red Deer to make sure I wouldn’t be at risk of dislocating the joint while playing – I hadn’t been able to train even once in the three months between my operation and Canada Games. All I could do was the most delicate of rehab exercises that I had strength for to try and stabilize my hip enough to prevent dislocation. I wasn’t even able to bend over while seated. I had been preparing all that time to not be able to compete at Games, so when Dr. Saran said I would be able to play I was over the moon – I was very nervous with so little training, but so excited.”

Manitoba finished 7th in wheelchair basketball at those Games, but Johnson still managed to come home with more than she bargained for.

Johnson wasn’t rooming with her fellow teammates in Red Deer because she doesn’t use a wheelchair outside of basketball. Instead, she was put in a room with Team Toba biathletes. One of them, was Emma Mitchell.

Mitchell was fresh off the success of the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, where she won a bronze medal in canoe-kayak. Mitchell had been to two Canada Games and a Western Canada Summer Games by the end of 2017, but was hungry for more. Mitchell could already cross-country ski, so she learned to shoot that winter and tried out for the biathlon team. She qualified for the 2019 Games, where she met Johnson.

“It came up in conversation that I had gone to Canada Summer Games for canoe-kayak and that we had some friends in common as she went to Churchill High School, which is near the canoe club. She (Johnson) had been telling me that she had tried wheelchair track but found it kind of boring going round and round the track. She was clearly a good athlete and had good upper body strength so I suggested she come try paddling.”

Johnson was immediately interested in the sport, and began going to the Manitoba Canoe Kayak Centre to learn how to kayak. By the end of that summer, she had qualified for the Canadian National Championships, and even brought home some hardware.

“My very first year of paddling I went to Nationals at Wascana [Racing Canoe Club]. I pulled off a gold medal in open para canoe (V1) and a bronze in open para kayak. As I was racing the K1 race it felt very close with the silver medalist, but the times ended up being a couple seconds apart so she got silver handily. That was one of the most fun races of my life though, the girls were all so friendly and supportive. I was just so proud to be on the podium twice at my first Nationals.”

Participating in both a Summer and Winter Games has allowed Johnson to make friendships and connections that span the whole country. She joked at one point that if someone is in a wheelchair and competing in sports in Canada, it’s likely that she knows them.

Johnson’s commitment to sports allowed her to make Team Manitoba’s 2022 canoe-kayak team, even though there is no para paddling at Games; Johnson qualified along with able-bodied teammates. She competed in the Women’s K4 500m and 200m events, finishing 7th in both events along with Ryleigh Adams, Scarlett Larsen, and Daisy Larsen.

Johnson hopes to continue participating in both sports, and you can look out for her at the next Canada Games in PEI with the rest of the wheelchair basketball team. Johnson is not classified as a para paddler outside of Canada, so she says she’ll be focusing on competing in wheelchair basketball after Niagara 2022.

“Kayak will always be very special for me. I’ve made some of the best friends of my life in this sport, travelled all over Canada, and even internationally with them, and pushed myself honestly further than I thought I could go. For me I can empty my mind of everything when I’m paddling, everything except the movement of my body and the blade in the water, trying to make every stroke better than the last. Being out on the water is a feeling that can’t be replicated anywhere and there is no way I could give that up.”

Johnson does admit that there is one area in which she is even more competitive than on the court or on the water: out in the athlete’s village, wherever pins can be found.

“I am the fiercest competitor when it comes to pin trading! I love pins. I got the pins I collected at last Games framed and put them up on the wall at home and I fully expect to do the same for the pins from these Games… and the next Winter Games too.” says Johnson with a smirk, proudly displaying the exclusive Team Toba slushie pin that she traded for earlier that day.