Kleanza Cathers is a proud Nisga'a swimmer.  Her Nisga'a name is Ajik'sin Hadiks ilx (proud swimmer). Her Nisga'a mother Laverne Cathers (formerly Smythe) and grandmother Rose Oscar (formerly Smythe) are both from Gingolx. Kleanza Cathers usually trains with the Kitimat Marlins swim club in Kitimat.  

This season however just after the AAA Provincial swim championships in Surrey in late February the District of Kitimat went on strike. This resulted in shutting down the Kitimat pool.  Kleanza had qualified for the Canadian age group swimming nationals in Quebec City.  Due to the lack of pool availability in Kitimat and Terrace, Kleanza stayed with family friends in Australia.  She finished her school year by correspondence, continued to train for Provincials and Nationals and gained tremendous life experience by living in a foreign country without her family.  While in Australia, she competed at a large swim meet in the city of Brisbane where she took home medals in 5 individual events.

It has been a fantastic swim season for Kleanza.  While competing in the 15 and over category, she broke 8 pool records between the Kitimat swim meet in December and the Terrace swim meet in January.  At the AAA short course Provincials (25 meter pool) in February, she broke two northwest BC regional records in the 200 meter and 800 meter freestyle events.  Kleanza had her best placing ever at the AAA Provincial championships with a 5th place finish in the 200 meter freestyle. Her time was less than 1/2 of a second from a medal in this 2 minute - 8 length race.  Also while at provincials, she qualified for the Canadian Age Group swim nationals for 15 year old girls in 4 events.  The age group nationals usually only have approximately 50 swimmers from each age group that are fast enough to attend.  Of the thousands of 15 year old girl competitive swimmers in the country, Kleanza ranks in the top 50 fastest times this season in 7 events.

Kleanza's results have not come by accident. She has trained as a competitive swimmer since the age of 7 and has been dedicated to the sport every season. This season she swims 9 practices a week before and after school between 1 and 1/2 and 2 hours per training session as well does strength training 3 times a week. Kleanza swims on average 45 km a week or 1800 lengths of the Kitimat pool.   All while maintaining straight A’s and B’s in school.

As you can imagine there are many costs in raising a national level swimmer. She competes at 11 swim meets a year across northern BC, the lower mainland, and Canada. As well she attends a yearly training camp in California.  Add to this the cost of racing suits at $400 - you need one to two suits per season - and the amount of food needed to feed an active athlete in training, and one can begin to appreciate the costs involved.  

For this reason, we want to say a huge thank you to the Nisga'a government and the people of Gingolx for all the love and financial support they have given us to allow Kleanza to chase her dreams one length of the pool at a time.

Thank you,

Laverne and Jason Cathers