Meet the Scot who warmed up for Commonwealth Games with two gold medals in a different sport

Gordon’s double success came at the Paracanoe World Cup in Montreal last weekend, a welcome filip ahead of her participation in the World Championships in Poznan next month.

In between, she will realise her ambition of representing Team Scotland at the Commie Games and hopes her extensive bench press training will stand her in good stead in the powerlifting competition at the Armadillo.

Gordon, 31, is nothing if not versatile. Her initial route into para sports was through swimming but as well as canoeing and powerlifting, she also competed at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, becoming Britain's first ever female para Nordic skier.

Hers is a remarkable story of dealing with terrible adversity in the most positive of fashions. Growing up in the small Sutherland village of Rogart, she was always a sporty kid.

‘My leg stopped working when I was 12’

“It's the type of place where you just do everything that you can,” she said. “I remember in primary school, it was supposed to be that the girls did basketball, the boys did football, but they didn't have enough boys to make a football team, so I just did both. You just sort of get on with it and do everything, really.”

Her world was changed when she began to experience a pain which arrived suddenly and never went away.

“My leg stopped working when I was 12,” she explained. “I just went to school one day, fully able-bodied, and then my leg basically just kind of stopped working.

“And then about a year later, in hospital in Glasgow, I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, which is a chronic neurological pain condition that there's not a cure for.

“I just thought my leg was going to get better, but essentially you just go from being a 12-year-old doing everything to not being able to do anything.”

The pain became more and more extreme during her teenage years until she sought a drastic solution.

“I kind of had to fight for about five and a half years to get my leg amputated,” she said. “The treatments just weren't really working. So I chose to fight the battle of getting it amputated, which has been like a really positive decision. I kept swimming for a bit, but was able to try different sports post-amputation. That's when I first tried para canoe and I just loved it. I love water, so I just tried to be on it instead of in it.”

How canoe training led to powerlifting

Gordon just missed out on qualification for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympics but made it to Paris 2024 and won paracanoe silver.

Having canoed and skied in the Paralympics, she is now pivoting to powerlifting.

“I grew up wanting to be part of Team Scotland, so I’m just thankful for canoeing. The training's made me strong enough to qualify.”

Para powerlifting takes place on a bench press, an exercise which forms a large part of Gordon’s canoe training. She has had to adapt her technique and has been doing the sport for less than a year but was able to compete at the 2025 World Paralifting Championships.

She describes the prospect of competing in Glasgow as “slightly terrifying”.

“I'm used to being out on the water and having my own space. And when I'm warming up, I can chat to the ducks. Walking out onto the stage is going to be very different. I'm just not thinking about that yet!”