Former UVic Vikes swimmer and medal-winning Paralympian Stephanie Dixon is among 125 appointments to this year’s Order of Canada.
Dixon was included in the Dec. 29 announcement by Governor General Julie Payette.
The new member list includes four companions, 35 officer companions and 86 companion members.
Dixon’s merit for appointment is based on her achievements in swimming and also for her leadership as an advocate for parasport.
Dixon represented Canada at three Olympic Games (2000, 2004 and 2008) amassing 19 Paralympic medals – seven gold, 10 silver and two bronze. She is the only Paralympian to win the same event in world record time at three-consecutive games.
Last year Dixon was inducted into the UVic Sports Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
When Dixon was a Vike, she was so powerful as an S9 level athlete (one leg), she qualified for the U SPORTS (then CIS) national championship under able-bodied standards and was awarded a 2004-05 CIS Honorary First Team All-Canadian award.
Dixon attended UVic from 2003 to 2007 and majored in psychology. She was UVic’s Athlete of the Year in 2004 and 2005 and a five-time Canadian Female Para Swimmer of the Year and seven-time B.C. Female Para Swimmer of the Year. She’s since been involved as a Right to Play Ambassador, Para Pan American Games Ambassador and was Assistant Chef de Mission for the Para Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015.
