Leah Robinson

Leah Robinson was born in November 1993 and grew up in Mannheim in Waterloo Region. After suffering an injury at birth, Leah was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and presents as a right-sided hemiplegic. Spasticity, muscle atrophy, loss of feeling and sensation are just a few of the medical complications associated with her condition, but athletics provided a healthy outlet for Leah. When she was eight years old, Leah and her father, Chris, ran together as a team in a 5 km race.

Leah was introduced to the world of Para athletics when she attended an awards banquet and was motivated to launch her own athletic journey. She swiftly created a name for herself as a sprinter. At age 14, Leah qualified for her first Paralympic Games and was the youngest athlete named to the Canadian Team at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

The Paralympics run parallel to the Olympics and began officially with the 1960 Games in Rome. Paralympic athletes, who go through as stringent a qualification process as athletes do for the Olympics, have an additional challenge – their physical impairments. According to the International Paralympic Committee, “Para athletes have a unique strength of character that combines mental toughness, physical ability and outstanding agility to produce sporting performances that regularly redefine the boundaries of possibility.”

Para athletes are assigned categories for competition based on their impairments, called sport classes. Leah most often competed as a T37: T for track; 3 for cerebral palsy; 7 for the severity of the impairment.

Leah became the Canadian record holder for the 100 m, 400 m, 800 m, and 1500 m races. In 2011, she placed 5th in the 400 m race at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico. In addition, she is a two-time Parapan American Games medalist, earning silver and bronze.

In 2012, while qualifying for her second Paralympic Games in London, UK, Leah exceeded her own Canadian record for the T37 400 m race.

Leah proudly represented Canada on the world stage for the better part of a decade and retired from professional sport in 2017. In 2021, she joined the Canadian Paralympic Committee, and has spoken on TED talks and in other venues about her experiences as an athlete with a physical disability. She emphasizes that overcoming physical limitations is both character building and life affirming.

Leah graduated from the University of Guelph and currently works as a personal support worker for individuals with Down’s Syndrome – a career that has nurtured and strengthened her unique experience and relationship with physical and cognitive disabilities.

Today, Leah lives in Calgary, Alta. with her dog Bruno and continues to run but as she says, “up mountains instead of circles around a track!” Leah Robinson is a deserving inductee in the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.