Surrey-raised para-swimmer Arianna Hunsicker captured bronze on the opening night of the 2025 Toyota World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore, marking her first Worlds medal.
Hunsicker, 22, grew up training with the Surrey Knights Swim Club before moving to Montreal to train with Côte Saint-Luc Aquatics and coach Michael Calcutt. She clocked 28.59 in the women’s 50m freestyle S10 final, finishing behind Defne Kurt of Türkiye, who set a championship record, and Italy’s Alessia Scortechini.
“It’s so surreal,” Hunsicker told Swimming Canada. “Even though I knew there was maybe a shot at a medal, I saw the three on the board and I thought, ‘That’s not real. That can’t be real.’ It might be the happiest I’ve ever been.”
Her result comes after years of persistence: in her previous Worlds appearances, Hunsicker had placed sixth in 2022 and ninth in 2023, while she finished 12th in her Paralympics debut in Paris in 2024.
Born in Edmonton with a partial left hand, Hunsicker moved to Surrey at age four. She later relocated to Montreal during the COVID-19 pandemic to pursue training and studies in business at Concordia University.
The 2025 championships, held Sept. 20–27, brought together nearly 600 athletes from 75 nations, including 19 Canadians.
