[Rebecca Dubber speaking]

I'm excited to be a Balance is Better Champion so that I can have the opportunity to work with my community, and create some better opportunities for young people to get involved in sport, and stay in sport. 

As a Balance is Better Champion I would really like to achieve some forward movement within the Disability sport community, around creating some opportunities to really get some young people with disabilities involved in sport. I think playing a lot of sports before I chose to specialize in swimming kind of helped me make the decision to go towards swimming. I feel like I really had that decision - I chose swimming as my sport, and looking back on my career, it's really good to kind of look back and not have that “or what if I tried this or what if I had done that” kind of thoughts running through my head. 

The Balance is Better philosophies fit in with my personal journey and my life because I think it's really important to love what you do and I think kids growing up need to make sure that they explore all the options before settling on a performance mindset, or whether they choose just to say in their participation realm. 

My message to young people is to have fun with what you're doing, don't be too serious about one sport before you're ready. If you're loving what you're doing go with it, if it doesn't feel right then maybe you need to look at pursuing something else.

My message to parents is to tell your kids you're proud of them regardless of whether it's a win or lose result. I think kids look to their parents to find their self value, and if you chastise them for a poor result then that is going to really impact their - how they see themselves, and how they see the value in what they're doing, and it may discourage them from pursuing it any further.

My message to coaches and administrators would be to remind yourselves that, it's more than just winning. It's about creating well-rounded young people that see value and what they're doing that are developing skill. 

And if by the end of the season you don't have any wins under your belt but your kids are happy then that should be counted as a win.