By Sport Nova Scotia
10-year-old Olivia Jost Guimrães Pontes is a multi-sport Para athlete who is making waves in competitive paddling, yet her favourite thing about kayaking is that it is fun.
Enjoying the chance to be outside, she recalls an often-repeated summer memory while spending time at the Maskwa Aquatic Club. “Sometimes mommy and daddy and my little brother would go all together, and after I was done, I would be able to go back to the dock, tip and bring the boat over so my daddy could put it back and I could go swimming with my mommy and my brother.”
But she also had a lot of fun winning the Women’s Para K1 500M and Para Women K1 200M bronze medals and competing with her team in the U18 Women C15 500m event while at the 2025 CKC Sprint National Championships. She also made history by becoming the youngest Para athlete to compete at the championships.
“When I crossed the finish line, I got super happy and tipped when celebrating,” says Olivia. But she also said it was a hard race, especially since she was competing against Para athletes much other than herself.
Olivia has a condition that causes stiffness and tightness of the leg muscles. While at the CKC Sprint National Championships she was able to undergo classification, which determines which athletes are eligible to compete in a sport and how they are grouped together. This, to a certain extent, is like grouping athletes by age or weight. To compete at a national level or above, Para athletes go through a classification evaluation that assigns them to their “sport class.” This typically only occurs in a single location nationally, or even globally, each year. This means that prospective high performance Para athletes are often required to travel long distances in order to be classified, which is an additional hurdle not faced by able-bodied athletes.
Sport Nova Scotia has funding available to Para athletes, like Olivia, through the Individual Para Athlete Classification Assistance Program. This program supported Olivia in going to the CKC Sprint National Championships to be classified.
“It feels good to be a Para athlete because it’s kind of rare to be one because there aren’t as many,” she says.
Olivia got started kayaking two years ago, very shortly after her and her family immigrated from Brazil. Visiting Olivia’s physiotherapist for an appointment, Olivia’s mom Daniela off-handedly mentioned to the receptionist that Olivia was looking for a new sport to try.
Luckily for her, Daniela was speaking to former canoe kayak world champion Marlee MacIntosh. By the time Olivia was done her appointment, Marlee had secured a spot for Olivia with the para program at Maskwa. The organizers of the program were willing to take her on even though at the time the program only consisted of teenagers. And in joining the Maskwa Aquatic Club, Olivia found a community of athletes to belong to while having more chances to practice.
And through it all she says the sport has taught her how to be strong and tough.
There have been a handful of times when she has been afraid to kayak in stormy conditions, not wanting to race, but in the end she always pushes through. One time, even though she had tipped, when she got back to the dock, she said she was glad she did it, as it was better to tip than to not try at all.
Gaining resilience as she goes into her third season of kayaking, she gives credit to her coaches and mentors over the years, including Savannah Sullivan, Morgan Pugh-Toole, Christian HallandDoug Ellery.
Looking ahead to this summer, Olivia is looking forward to nationals and having even more fun.
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To learn more about the Individual Para Athlete Classification Program and other supports available, visit sportnovascotia.ca/funding-programs-and-eligibility or email parasport@sportnovascotia.ca.
