Nicholas Bennett might be the youngest of the 128 Canadian athletes heading to the Paralympic Games but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his impressive sporting resume.

The 17-year-old from Parksville, B.C., will be one of 19 Canadian swimmers in action from Aug. 25 to Sept. 3 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

In the Japanese capital, the versatile S14 competitor is set to race in the 100-m butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley, all events in which he holds the national record.

Tokyo 2020 will be only his second major international competition after the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games. There, at only 15, he was one of Canada’s revelations with three gold medals and a silver.

A few months later, at the end of 2019, Bennett lowered four world short course records in the S14 category.

Not bad for a teenager who took up swimming a mere seven years ago and then uprooted everything to chase his dream on the eve of his 16^th birthday, moving across the country from Vancouver Island to Montreal in October of 2019 to join coach Mike Thompson’s team at the High Performance Centre – Quebec.

“I just love swimming,” says Bennett, who was diagnosed at three with autism. “Going deep under water just felt great as a kid. I couldn’t handle loud noises back then, and the silence just felt great.

“I’m doing this because I want to. My family is very easy going. There’s no pressure on me. The thing my dad said before I left was he’s proud of me no matter what. Which is great because it takes so much stress out of everything.”

The move from a small town of 12,000 to the big city wasn’t all smooth sailing but Bennett quickly found a second home at HPC-Quebec.

“It was difficult at first. I was 15, moving away from my friends and that kind of stuff. It was kind of hard to socialize with people who were four, six years older than me. But over time it became easier. Right now, I’d say my teammates are some of the best people I know.

“Moving to a big city like Montreal was a little stressful. It was a big leap for sure. But my mom moved with me. She just makes sure I’m safe all the time.”

Thompson started having conversations with the Bennett family in the summer of 2019, just before the Parapan Am Games. Nicholas’ club had lost its head coach at the time, and they were looking for a solution.

“At first I had a conversation with Nick’s mom and it was more about how can we help you. It didn’t necessarily mean they had to move, but maybe work with our nutritionist and things like that. It’s a tall order to ask a family to relocate and in his case it couldn’t be by himself because he’s underaged and he needs help in his day-to-day life.

“Once their move to Montreal was finalized, I loved working with Nick right away. He’s a very process-oriented guy. At first it was almost like he was afraid to ask for anything. He was so happy to be there and to be given directions, he didn’t want to ask for anything. Within a few months of being with us, he dropped his times significantly and broke those short course world records at the end of November 2019, which was incredibly impressive.”

Now, not even two years later, Bennett is set to make his Paralympic Games debut.

Due to the cancellation of Swimming Canada’s Paralympic Swimming Trials earlier this summer, and because he didn’t compete at the 2019 world championships, he had to go an extra step to earn his spot on the Tokyo team. He was one of four athletes nominated following a submission of training logs and data and a video-recorded time trial performance.

“Being nominated to the Paralympic team is a whole new level,” says Bennett. “Not to sound like an egomaniac, but at Trials in Toronto in 2019, I kind of expected to make the Parapan Am team. But Tokyo, I wasn’t sure. We didn’t know who was going to make it. So I’d say it was definitely more exciting to make this team, for sure.”

What would make his Tokyo 2020 Games a success?

“Of course I want to make finals and win medals, everybody wants to do that. But I’m 17, I’m pretty young compared to everyone else. If I can make the Paralympics now, hopefully I’ll make them in 2024 when I’m older, stronger, faster, and have a better chance of reaching the podium. So I’d say it’s for experience this time around. No matter the results, I’ll be happy.”

His coach agrees.

“For these Games, I told Nick I’m not putting any pressure on him,” says Thompson. “I’m not looking for a medal. I think he’s totally capable of it but I’m not asking for that, I’m not expecting that. Right now, he needs one Games under his belt so he knows what to expect for Paris. Paris is definitely going to be his Games.

“Again, I think he’s completely capable of medalling but I haven’t had that conversation with him. I just want it to be a positive experience. I want him to come back and be like ‘I want to do this again and I want it to be even better next time’.”

To say Thompson sees great things ahead in Bennett’s career would be a major understatement.

“I’m not sure Nick has a limit to be honest. He’s the type of guy Canada has been waiting for for a long time. We’ve had a lot of S14’s that have been at the faster end but we haven’t had the one who’s at that level. Had he not heard about Para swimming, he would have stayed in the Olympic stream and he would have probably made finals at Trials eventually. He’s that good.

“Where he stand in terms of everyone else I think is pretty unprecedented. Nick just loves the sport, he just loves the feeling of being in the water. For other athletes, he’s a dangerous guy to have in the field because he loves what he’s doing. He’s not doing it because of pressure, he’s not doing it because he wants medals, he’s not doing it because he wants money. He’s doing it because he wants to swim. That’s why there’s no limit for this guy. His only limit is going to be when he decides he doesn’t want to do this anymore.”