At just two years old, Leo Zheng's mother lowered him into a swimming pool for the first time. He doesn't remember the exact moment, but it's a moment that altered the trajectory of his life.

Recovering from a virus that left much of his body in paralysis, Zheng, still a toddler with unsteady legs, found his first sense of freedom in the water. It started with ten laps a day, the routine his mother followed after a physiotherapist suggested swimming for rehab. Ten laps became fifteen, then twenty, then entire seasons spent tracing blue lines back and forth.

Sixteen years later, Zheng is a first-year athlete on the University of Victoria swim team, and he's still adding to that tally. However, his commitment to the sport hasn't come without hurdles.

Born in Regina, Sask., at just six months old, Zheng became almost completely paralyzed after contracting Polio from the live vaccine—an extraordinarily rare, almost unimaginable complication. For every one-million doses administered, fewer than a single case is typically reported, and only a fraction result in paralysis.

The recovery process started immediately, and, over time, strength began to return. By age two, Zheng was in the pool daily. By eight, he was swimming competitively. At 12, after switching clubs, he began meeting para-swimming standards, qualified for provincials and went on to represent Saskatchewan that same year as a para athlete.

With complete paralysis in his left leg and limited function through much of his left side, Zheng competes in a classification that accounts for his asymmetry and the reduced power on one side. Para swimming relies on a function-based classification system meant to level the field so athletes can race each other, not their impairments. He's currently in the S6 class, which is a category for athletes assessed with a disability that affects coordination on one side of the body, the lower trunk and legs, short stature, or limb deficiency. While the system is far from perfect, it fills a vital gap, creating pathways for athletes with diverse abilities to compete at elite levels while also ensuring fair competition.

At 15, Zheng doubled down on the sport after qualifying for the Western Canadian Championships. The years that followed took him far from Regina: Team Saskatchewan at the Canada Summer Games where he won a gold medal; multiple stops on the World Para Swimming Series — Indianapolis, Guadalajara, Italy, Barcelona — and a place in Team Canada's NextGen development program. Among his class, Zheng currently holds Canadian para swimming records in the 400-metre individual medley, 100-metre individual medley, and 1500-metre freestyle.

This past summer, before arriving at UVic, Zheng earned a spot at the Canadian Swimming Trials with his longtime coach, Emma Hancock of the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins. Held in Victoria, B.C., the six-day trials served as a national selection event for the World Championships, World Junior Championships, and Para World Championships. Zheng swam in four para multi-class events, hitting personal bests across the board, placing fifth in the 400-metre freestyle and 100-metre freestyle, ninth in the 50-metre freestyle, and sixth in the 100-metre backstroke, missing the world championship standard by just half a second.
 
"The mental game is a lot," Zheng said. "Ever since I made my first major competition, I've pushed myself to do better each time. And every time I miss my shot, I know I have to wait another year or more to try again. That can be really hard mentally."

Although Zheng remains in the thick of competing internationally and representing Canada, when it came time to attend university, escaping winter for a coastal experience was high on his list of priorities and UVic was the perfect fit. 

Now a member of the Vikes swimming program, Zheng trains multiple times a day, though para-athletes currently have no competitive pathway in U SPORTS or Canada West. It means the practices are plentiful, but competition is rare. Some days, that imbalance wears on him. But Zheng says he's grateful for the opportunities he has.

"The team has been really great. It's special to be part of the Vikes and to represent the school. I love the opportunities this sport has given me, the friends I've made and the places I've been able to travel to," he said.

Staying motivated for weeks or months is hard enough; staying motivated for more than a decade, through roadblocks, burnout, and mornings when the last thing he wants to do is jump into cold water, is something else entirely. But Zheng is always chasing the next goal, and the next one is the biggest yet: the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

"The Paralympics are my main goal," he said. "There are still many checkboxes I have to hit [in the next couple of years], and I have a lot to improve on. I'm still figuring out the optimal technique — backstroke is my best event, and I'm still working on how to get more efficient."

Zheng is realistic about the grind ahead, but he isn't doing it alone. Surrounded by teammates and coaches who push him daily, it's the same rhythm he's followed since those first ten laps.