“The bad days and the good days”:
Trinity Lowthian’s remarkable journey of courage and determination
The Mainstreeter: Trinity, let’s start with Old Ottawa East. How long have you lived here, and how do you like it?
Trinity: I moved here in the fall of 2023 from Stittsville, so three years now. I live on Elliott Avenue, and I have a mix of the best of both worlds – the bottom unit of our house on the main floor, with my own kitchen, laundry room, and an in-law suite, and then my mom and her partner live on the top two floors.
The move from Stittsville was a great one for me. There were a couple of big reasons why we moved. One is because I train for fencing at Saint Paul University, and so having that close by was big. Also, being only 10 minutes away from the hospitals and from the University of Ottawa, where I studied were super benefits that drew us to this community.
Being here in Old Ottawa East, it really doesn’t feel like you’re only 10 minutes from downtown, being next to the river and to the Canal, and having the trails and such an outdoor feel – it’s all really kind of nice. The only thing I miss about Stittsville is the parking situation here because it’s very difficult to find parking anywhere in this neighbourhood.
The Mainstreeter: And you drive, Trinity, right?
Trinity: Yes, I do…I have an adapted Nissan Kicks, it’s like a small SUV fitted with hand controls. But whether it’s adapted or not, I still face the same parking problems as we all do. Especially in the winter. In the summer, I can get around the neighbourhood in my wheelchair, but in the winter driving, with the icy sidewalks and snowbanks and plowing, it’s much harder to get around.
The Mainstreeter: Well, you’ve certainly navigated the world of wheelchair sports quite brilliantly, Trinity? In no time at all, you placed fifth in the world in wheelchair fencing at the 2024 Paralympics. How is that even possible?
Trinity: Well, growing up, I was super competitive. All of my birthday parties were based on the Olympic themes, and I competed at triathlons and water polo. I also did biathlon, cross country and track at school.
But then when I was about 15 or 16, I started getting sick and not being able to tolerate foods with all kinds of gastro-intestinal issues. Then that progressed to an auto-immune neuropathy that affected all of my autonomic nerves, the nerves that control the functions that you don’t think about, like digestion. And so, from then, I started getting sicker and sicker, and eventually I got meningitis, which led to me using a wheelchair. And that was when I got back into sports.
The Mainstreeter: Before we explore your return to sports, let’s talk first about your health struggles. When was your illness first diagnosed?
Trinity: It took a really long time. I think my first admission to the hospital was when I was 15 at CHEO, and I basically spent most of high school in and out of the hospital, but without a diagnosis. They knew things were very wrong, but no one could figure out why things were wrong.
By the time I turned 18, I was at the Ottawa adult hospital, and they were able to figure things out. I had gone to Edmonton for testing, and Montreal, and even Boston, and they kept finding things wrong on the test, but they didn’t know why. And then, finally, blood work came back showing a positive antibody that they found in Sweden, and then more tests from there led them to figuring it out.
I’ve tried a lot of medications, and they either have side effects or they’ve not worked, and things over time have been definitely declining, requiring more and more interventions. Right now, I’m only doing steroids, and it’s been keeping things kind of stable for the time being.
The Mainstreeter: And despite the ups and downs of your health, you’ve had brilliant success with the academic side of your life. You’ve just graduated with your Master’s degree. And I understand there’s an even more phenomenal recent development. Congratulations, and please explain what’s in store for you next!
Trinity: Thanks! I did my undergrad at UOttawa in nutrition and then I did some internships. I’m now a dietitian but I’m not working in that field right now. And then I did a one-year Master’s in Sport Management, which was mainly internship-based. I was looking for a one-year program to bridge the gap while I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next. I wanted to stay in Ottawa because my health wasn’t great, and I like sports, so I interned with the Ontario Fencing Association, actually. And now I’m off later this month for more school.
The Mainstreeter: And not just any old school! You’ve won a Rhodes Scholarship, and now you’re off to Oxford University in England.
Trinity: It was a very, very intense application process. I’ve heard it referred to as the scholarship with the hardest acceptance rate in the world. I don’t know how true that is, but it was definitely an unbelievable process. I needed six reference letters, my CV, a personal statement, an academic statement, transcripts, all of that. First, I had to be selected by my school so that means nominated by UOttawa, and then I had to be selected as a finalist in the province, and then I went to Toronto for an in-person social engagement, and then an interview with nine interviewers.
It was crazy. And then that night, after the interview, I got the call that I had been awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, so it was a very long and intense process that had me doing a lot of reflecting on myself.
The scholarship is for two to four years, up to four years of tuition. I’m starting with a one-year Master’s in translational health science, which is essentially how research becomes practice. For example, research finds that smoking is bad, but then how do we get people to actually stop smoking in practice? That’s the translational aspect. I’ll start with that Master’s and see how that goes.
The Mainstreeter: Do you expect it to be rigorous?
Trinity: Yes, very much so at Oxford, in general. The terms only start in mid-October, and they have three terms that are only nine weeks each. So, they’re very short and very intense. But there are intense weeks, and then periods of less intense weeks.
I kind of compare Oxford to Harry Potter. Like, there’s the University of Oxford, but then there are also about 40 colleges. So, if you’re at Oxford, you need to belong to a college, and that college is where your accommodations are, your dining is, and your funding comes from. My college is Linacre College. So, I’m staying in my college’s accommodation for the first year. I know that there are a few others from the total 2026 Rhodes cohort from other countries who are in my college, but there’s no other Canadians. I have my own room, which is nice, and a shared kitchen with my floor.
The Mainstreeter: You’re only 24, Trinity, and you’ve already done so many amazing things. But the Rhodes Scholarship has to be one of your proudest achievements.
Trinity: I feel the scholarship is like a summation of my experiences in the past, whether they’ve been good or bad experiences. Sure, fencing and being a Paralympian is a part of it, but there are so many other parts of my life. I am very proud of the scholarship, but I knew if I didn’t get it, and I genuinely was not expecting to get it, I knew that the rigorous application process would teach me a lot about myself. And then going through the interview, I felt like once I got through it, I thought, okay, that’s been the hardest interview of my life. That experience alone will get me into so many rooms, and that made me feel good. It still feels like a lot of pressure. But I’m going there because I want to make a difference, and I don’t want to let it go to waste when I’m there.
The Mainstreeter: Do you plan to continue competing internationally in fencing even as a Rhodes Scholar?
Trinity: On my way to qualifying for the Paralympics in Paris in 2024, fencing was very much my number one priority. Setting up a GoFundMe account, doing so much fundraising for it, taking time off of school and everything else. And so then, after the Paralympics, finishing fifth in the world, I was super proud of that. I took a bit of time off after that and I didn’t really train much. I did a few competitions, and I did decently in them. And now I’m starting to ramp up training again, aiming to qualify for the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles. I feel a lot more comfortable about where I’m at now, two years out from the games, and how much I can build from here. Yeah, it will take work, but I’ve taken enough of a break that I’m kind of itching to get back.
The Mainstreeter: What about COVID. Wouldn’t the pandemic have affected you, your health and your early training and competition in fencing?
Trinity: Before COVID, from 2018 to early 2020, I was still a CHEO patient, and I was going back and forth to home and to hospital. Essentially, when I was 16 and 17, I wasn’t feeling well at all, and I was really living in the hospital. I’d spend months in CHEO getting IV nutrition, and in the pediatric world, there was no program to provide me with proper nutrition at home. I’d be in the hospital for a couple of months doing school work and everything from there, and then I’d be home without proper nutrition, just getting some hydration and a little bit of nutrition for a few weeks, and I would end up back in the hospital.
When I turned 18, I transitioned to The Ottawa Hospital, and they have a home nutrition program. When I was discharged on home nutrition early in 2020, I was so excited. It was like, finally, I could go out in the world. I could travel. I don’t need to be living in the hospital anymore. And I had a weekend in Montreal in March – and then COVID happened and, very sadly, my freedom was short-lived.
I was still fairly unwell during those first two years of COVID, from 2020 to 2022. I had lots of health complications, and surgeries. I was still in and out of the hospital a lot, and right around the new year 2022, I got meningitis and then, after that, I started using a wheelchair.
Finally, by the spring of 2022, I was feeling a little bit better, and I wanted to start doing sports again, because that was a huge part of my identity. My goal was to get to the Paralympics, because I was obsessed with the Olympics as a kid. So now I saw this as a new door opening for me. So, I did some research, and I learned that very few people in Canada do fencing. I did a little bit of fencing in my undergrad, but not much. So, I reached out to the coach of the Ottawa Fencing Club, and asked, “Do you do wheelchair fencing?” And that’s how it started.
At my first training session, my coach asked, “What’s your goal? Do you just want to fence recreationally? And I said, “I want to go to the Paralympics.” And he said, “Okay, 2028. We can make that happen.” I said, “No, I want to go to Paris in two years – 2024. And he was like, “Okay. Gosh, okay.”
But then they saw me fence, and I had my first international competition in October 2022 in Brazil, and I ended up doing pretty well. And then from there, I went pretty much into competing internationally, very regularly, traveling all over, and doing pretty well, well enough to qualify for Paris.
Since then, I’ve done two senior world championships. The latest one was last fall in South Korea, and I came ninth, despite having surgery that summer and being very untrained. So, we were very happy with that result, and at one point my world ranking was fifth. But I haven’t competed much lately, so it’s gone down. But I feel good for qualifying for Los Angeles in 2028.
The Mainstreeter: Trinity, yours is a remarkable story of courage, resilience, and determination. How do you find the strength to keep pushing on when things get really tough in your life and in your wellness?
Trinity: I definitely have my bad days, definitely, and lots of therapy. And I will say that I’ve learned that the bad moments don’t take away from the good moments. When I competed in Paris and had my fifth place finish, it was probably the best day of my life. I was so happy I couldn’t stop smiling, but I was still in a lot of pain, I still had to take medication, I still was physically not doing well. But I learned that, okay, the two things can be true at once. Like things can suck, but things can also be good, at the same time.
Lots of people, especially when I’m having bad mental days or feeling a bit more burnt out, they will say, “Oh, I don’t know how you do it”, or “Oh, you’re so strong.” And really – I feel like I don’t have a choice. I’ve always been someone who’s had an incredible support system through my family to really push me to do the things that I enjoy. And I think if I wasn’t this busy, I would be in a much worse place right now. So yeah, I just do the things that make me feel good, and fencing is one of those, and school and learning is another one of those, and yeah, the bad days and the good days, they can all be on the same day.
[Editor’s note: And if you thought OOE’s 24-year-old wunderkind had already achieved enough in her young life, read on – in her own words:]
“My very first competition was in Brazil because there were no opportunities provincially or nationally at the time, and I also didn’t have any training partners. I was only fencing able-bodied people who sat down. So, I applied for a grant from the Canadian Paralympic Committee and got $10,000 to start a program here in Ottawa. I got equipment for it, and coaching, and then I began coaching to the point that we soon had five or six wheelchair fencers in Ottawa. Because I had interned with the Ontario Fencing Association, I started a yearly parafencing championship in Ontario for both able-bodied and parafencers, so they could all sit down and fence together in a competition.”