'You can achieve anything': Life-long B.C. athlete keeps competing after sudden vision loss
For as long as he can recall, James Kwinecki has loved athletics.
“It’s hard-wired in my body,” James smiles. “I don’t think I could go a few days without moving.”
When he was a kid, he played on every team he could. After graduating, he got a job that would support his pastime.
“I could make some money,” James says. “And then I could do my fitness and sports on the side.”
His life couldn’t have been better, until his vision suddenly got worse. He went to the doctor after the vision in one eye was “sort of getting fuzzy.”
“And then they sent me to the ER,” James says. “That was a bit of a curveball.”
The then 21-year-old was diagnosed with a rare eye disease, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy. Six months later, James was almost completely blind in both eyes.
“It was terrible,” James says. He suddenly couldn’t drive, couldn’t see his phone to connect with the world, and couldn’t play sports. “I had no idea what I was going to do.”
All the activities that James used to do – which defined him, fuelled him, and provided him with community – he now couldn’t do.
But then James heard about blind baseball. Seeing as he had nothing else to do, he tried it.
“It was so much fun,” James says, explaining how all the players are blindfolded before attempting to hit a ball that emits sounds, and running towards bases that do the same. “It kind of propelled me into getting into other sports.”
It inspired James to go to university and join the varsity rowing team.
“It was tough. It was hard,” James admits, before smiling. “Some of those days, I spent much more time in the water than the boat.”
But James persevered. And did so well that he earned an opportunity to join the national Paralympic rowing team.
“The momentum sparked more motivation,” James says.
It also gave James the confidence to look for a sport that would provide him with some of the autonomy he’d lost. He found that in running.
“I can just go run,” James says. “Nothing's going to stop me.”
After finding closed tracks and public routes that were safe, and often wearing a vest that says ‘blind runner,’ James runs by himself almost daily.
He’s now part of a community of runners. And with the help of a guide, James has also completed more than few marathons, and is training for more.
“You’re on top of the world,” James describes the feeling of running.
Although nothing compares to the feeling of proposing to your partner and her saying ‘yes.’
James and his fiancée Sydney are planning their wedding, while he’s also starting a new job at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to support youth with vision loss.
“It does get better,” the now 29-year-old says. “It does get easier.”
And although life does take unexpected turns, James says if you commit to forging your own path, you just might find you couldn’t be happier with the direction you’re headed.
“Once you achieve that,” James smiles. “You can achieve anything!”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6979388.1722030190!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
BREAKING Celine Dion stages comeback with performance at Paris Olympics opening ceremony
Celine Dion staged the comeback of her career during the opening ceremony at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Paris Olympics kicks off with ambitious but rainy opening ceremony on the Seine River
Celebrating its reputation as a cradle of revolution, Paris kicked off its first Summer Olympics in a century on Friday with a rain-soaked, rule-breaking opening ceremony studded with stars and fantasy along the Seine River.
Jasper wildfire: 'Several weeks' before Jasper can return, premier says
Premier Danielle Smith said Friday afternoon in Hinton while weather conditions are cooler, the Jasper fire is still considered out of control and that Jasper residents can expect to be away from their homes "for several weeks."
Health Canada warns some naloxone kits contain false instructions
Health Canada is warning some take-home naloxone kits come with bad instructions that should be ignored in favour of the correct guidance.
'He was just gone': Police ramp up search for vulnerable 3-year-old boy in Mississauga, Ont.
Police in Mississauga are conducting a full-scale search of the city’s biggest park for a non-verbal toddler who went missing Thursday evening. Sgt. Jennifer Trimble told reporters Friday morning that there has been no trace of three-year-old Zaid Abdullah since 6:20 p.m., when he was last seen with his parents in Erindale Park, near Dundas Street West and Mississauga Road.
Driver charged after flashing high beams at approaching police
Orillia OPP arrested and charged a driver with impaired driving after flashing their high beams.
Irish museum pulls Sinead O'Connor waxwork after just one day due to backlash
An Irish museum will withdraw a waxwork of singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor just one day after installing it, following a backlash from her family and the public, it told CNN in a statement on Friday.
Winnipeg senior's account overdrawn $146,000 for water bill
A Winnipeg senior is getting soaked with a six figure water bill.
Canada's Christine Sinclair: 'We were never shown drone footage'
Canada soccer great Christine Sinclair said on Friday national team players were never shown drone footage during the more than two decades she was on the team, following a spying scandal that cast a shadow over the Canadians at the Paris Games.