Para swimmer trades graduation stage for world stage to win gold

Shelby Newkirk had to forgo her long-awaited convocation from the University of Saskatchewan, but she had a good reason: she was busy clinching the world title in backstroke para-swimming.

After six years of hard work, arranging classes around her training schedule and dealing with practicum postponements and online learning due to COVID-19, Newkirk has been eagerly anticipating her graduation and receiving her diploma.

“I’ve been working on this for so long, and trying to finish this degree for forever, it seems,” Newkirk said.

“I finally found out the convocation date, and I realized I was going to be away!”

The full-time Team Canada para swimmer just turned 26. She said she was disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to attend her convocation, but she had her sights set on another accomplishment.

“I got fourth in Tokyo and I had my goal set to get on that podium,” Newkirk shared, referring to the World Para Swimming Competition that would overlap her graduation ceremony.

Newkirk said she had a good swim the morning of her backstroke race, which is her best competition.

“But I knew I could do better,” she said.

Her afternoon performance confirmed that, as Newkirk won gold in the competition while setting a new championship record at the first world championships since 2019.

Newkirk said she didn’t know she’d won right away.

“Since I’m a backstroker, it’s kind of hard to see where other people are,” she shared.

Not knowing where her competition was during the race, Newkirk said she was solely focused on swimming her best.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen at that wall, but you can’t control what other people do. You can just control your own race.”

When she touched the wall, all she knew was that she’d left it all in the pool. Then, she said she took a look around.

“I gave a quick look to either side and realized nobody else had touched the wall yet,” she said.

At that moment, she realized she’d earned a place on the podium. Newkirk said it was all she could have asked for.

“I hit that wall hard, and to be able to touch it first was pretty cool,” she said.

Newkirk also set a record during her morning swim. All told, she competed in 13 races over five days, “which was a lot, and I’m definitely still a little tired from it,” Newkirk said with a grin.

Swimming ahead

Although she’s now armed with her education degree, Newkirk said she isn’t planning to put it to use just yet. The para swimmer said she plans to take time to focus on her training and coaching.

With the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris only two years away, and next year’s Para Swimming World Championships on her mind, Newkirk said she’s looking forward to dedicating her time to the pool without having to split her efforts between training and her studies.

“There’s so many opportunities that we have to turn down just because it is a full-time job,” she said. “I am looking forward to being able to take some of those opportunities.”

While convocation is an exciting time to mark the end of a chapter, given her recent performance at the world championships, Newkirk said she has no regrets about her choice to compete.

“Getting to compete at worlds was amazing, so I’m really glad that I got to be in Portugal and got to be seaside instead of in the convocation hall.”

She said she was surrounded by her teammates and parents while in Portugal, who all helped celebrate her achievements, and she’s excited for an upcoming family barbecue where she and four of her cousins will gather to celebrate their graduations collectively.

None of them experienced a convocation, largely thanks to the pandemic, Newkirk explained.

Her father, a professor at the U of S, plans to don his robes to help them mark the day properly.

With her new freedom from school, Newkirk said she also wants to see what she can do with her two small businesses — Crafty Prairie Girl, where she sells hats and other things she crochets by hand, and Accessible Life, which provides people living with disabilities with everyday items that can make tasks easier.

With accessibility as a passion of hers, Newkirk plans to take her education degree and pair it with efforts to advocate for children living with disabilities in school.

“I didn’t do all this work just to be on the stage to get the degree,” she said. “It was for the knowledge and all the things that I learned.”

When she visits schools, Newkirk said she regularly hears stories about issues that she experienced herself while growing up — things like being unable to participate in gym classes and being left to keep time on the sidelines, for example.

“It breaks my heart to see that still happening, so I am looking forward to being able to take what I’ve learned through para swimming and adapting activities for myself in sport, in the gym, in the water … and being able to help students advocate for themselves,” Newkirk said.