Kanza Bodden: world champion, comedian, brown belt in karate, puzzle aficionado, lover of Mexican food and, according to swim coach Ryan Mushin, “a jack of all trades” and the “ultimate best friend”.
“Everyone is her friend, and she cares for her friends,” Mushin said. “Kanza’s a great best friend – if there was a job to be ultimate best friend, that’s Kanza Bodden.”
A senior swimming instructor at the Cayman Islands Department of Sports and head coach of John Gray Swim Club, Mushin first met Bodden, 27, a decade ago when he began helping the late Penny McDowall with swim coaching for Special Olympics Cayman Islands. Most recently, the two travelled to the 2023 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin, where Bodden secured her latest World Games gold medal.
After claiming her first medal in Berlin – a bronze in the 400-metre freestyle on 20 June – Bodden returned to the pool the following day for the 200m freestyle, in which she earned gold and the spot at the top of the podium.
“I was so proud of [Bodden] in Berlin,” said Jess McDowall, Penny’s daughter, who continues to carry the torch with SOCI’s athletes. “It is an entirely new environment for all the athletes, they are away from their families and homes, and she handled it with a giant smile on her face and thirst for a medal.”
Bodden was also featured in a poolside interview on ESPN following her 200m victory:
Upon her triumphant return to Cayman with the rest of the country’s Special Olympians, Bodden got her wish: a party with her coaches, family and friends, complete with a cake sporting a picture of her gold medal.
Despite her success in the pool, some of Bodden’s favourite memories from Berlin actually took place during the team’s ventures away from the competition venue – including a water park, an aquarium and a zoo – after the racing was over.
“[The] arcade, then ice cream and gelato!” she answered when quizzed on what stood out the most.
Long-time stardom
This year marked a fourth World Games appearance for Bodden, who has already racked up an impressive cache of international medals from previous Games in Athens (2011), Los Angeles (2015) and Abu Dhabi (2019). And, having loved the sport since she started with Penny McDowall back in 2010, the SOCI star isn’t thinking about retiring any time soon.
“She’s planning on going to Australia, if they’ll have her,” said Bodden’s mother, Nancy. The city of Perth is the frontrunner to host the 2027 edition of the World Games.
Those accolades over the years haven’t just come in the swimming pool, either. With Penny McDowall as a key driving force, open-water swimming was first included in the World Games schedule in Los Angeles. Kitted out in a wetsuit alongside unified partner Lois Moody, Bodden claimed a bronze medal in that 1,500m sea swim to go with her individual 800m freestyle gold in the pool.
Four years later, Bodden was back in the ocean, this time accompanied by Jennifer Powell for a silver medal in Abu Dhabi. Nancy Bodden added that in the time her daughter has been swimming, she has also done as many as 10 Flowers Sea Swims and countless other local sea swims, as well as completing open-water events in Miami and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Life on dry land
But Bodden’s accomplishments and interests stretch far beyond just swimming.
In her room, near the ever-growing collection of aquatics medals and trophies, lies a karate brown belt earned through time spent with Shihan Greg Reid of the Cayman Associated School of Karate-do. Innumerable boxes of jigsaw puzzles fill shelves in one corner of the room; in another, a quilted blanket – made by her aunt and featuring Bodden with some of her closest friends, including Powell, Moody and Penny McDowall – hangs on the wall.
On her desk sits a collection of wristbands, the product of many a trade with fellow Special Olympians from across the world; alongside them, a special notebook.
“Something people may not know about Kanza is that she is a comedian and a showman,” said Jess McDowall. “She always has a notebook in her bag to write jokes and stories in, and she cannot wait to tell you them.”
McDowall continued, “She frequently will not swim another lap until she tells you a story or a joke. She loves to make people smile and laugh – she is just joy.”
Over the years, Bodden has brought that joy to the likes of Chatterbox and Little Trotters, where she has worked with and – most importantly – given hugs and friendship to the children there. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, for over a year she also helped to stock shelves at local party supply store ‘It’s Your Party’.
So, after a little time off, where to next for the young woman who, according to television commentators during the opening ceremony in Berlin, is one of few open-water swimmers with Down’s syndrome in North America?
She’ll be back in the water, of course.
“In November, I have a sea swim in Barbados,” Bodden said excitedly.
A legacy
Inclusivity – in every sense of the word – was a key goal of Penny McDowall: a woman beloved in the SOCI and swimming communities and beyond, who was a beacon of optimism, hope and happiness until her passing in late 2018. It is also what her daughter, Jess, continues to champion.
“I think my mom’s mission and legacy was always [about] inclusion – she always strived to have her athletes participate in every level of competition and practice because they can, and they should,” Jess McDowall said of her mother. “These athletes are amazing and some of the best people I know. They should not be left out of life.”
Through the work of SOCI, the McDowalls and so many others – and a bit of fast swimming along the way – the dreams of Bodden and other Caymanians with intellectual disabilities continue to be realised year after year.
“Special Olympics gives these kids a family outside of their own,” Nancy Bodden said. “It has been one of the big factors in [Kanza’s] self-esteem, in her health, in her happiness – and if it does it to her, it does it to all of them.
“I hope that we can continue to have the high calibre, quality, heartfelt volunteering go forward so that it can continue to happen for more and more generations, because it is a beautiful programme.”
To Nancy, and Kanza herself, a storied swimming career alongside these myriad other adventures upon which she has embarked so far is just another way of showing that anything is possible.
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