When she was just a few years old, Stephanie Dixon's parents enrolled her in swimming lessons at a local pool in Toronto.

Born with one leg the left one Dixon's parents were hoping to find something she could take to, a sport that would make her feel like she fit in. Mission accomplished.

'I actually thought I was a real mermaid,' smiled Dixon, in an interview at the Whitehorse Lions Aquatice Centre. 'I just loved being in the water.'

It's a passion that took her all the way to the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, where she brought home an incredible eight medals six individual and two in relay events. And it's that same passion that brought her to Whitehorse this week, for the annual Christmas swim camp. She is currently training and attending classes at the University of Victoria, along side Yukon swimmer MacKenzie Downing.

'I love doing this,' she said, looking around the pool at all the young swimmers in the camp. 'It's the least I can do to help give back. It helps me to remind myself why I am doing it, what I love about it. It reminds me what it's like to be that age, when my passion began.'

Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club coach Jim Thompson, who runs the Christmas camps every year, saw Dixon in action about three years ago and was intrigued. He looked her name up on the internet, saw her accomplishments and contacted the national swim coach about getting her to the Yukon.

'You can't get much more of an inspiration to swimming,' he stated. 'She's such an inspiration to all the kids. She's very self-motivated. They really took to her.'

What makes Dixon such a great role model goes beyond her exceptional results as an athlete, beyond the fact she's done so much with her disability. She's also very honest and open, outgoing and modest in her accomplishments.

'Everyone is born with different abilities and disabilities, mine just happens to be more obvious,' said Dixon, adding while she talks about the Olympics at camps she attends, she prefers to send more messages to the kids.

The Olympics were 'probably the most amazing experience of my life,' she said, but 'I try to down play that. I use it as a tool to get my foot in the door, to talk about things I think are important. You can't control whether you get a medal or not. You can only control the process in getting there.'

Twelve-year-old Patricia Wallingham travelled from Dawson City to Whitehorse for the swim camp this week. Wallingham said the swimmers have been learning new drills every day, meeting new people and just having fun.

'We're learning to work together, to believe in yourself and to have hope that you can go anywhere,' said Wallingham, who was one of nine swimmers from the Yukon communities at the camp. 'She's really supportive and helps us out a lot with our strokes.'

Despite the fact she's been swimming since the age of five, Wallingham never knew how to do the butterfly until she attended the camp this week. It's those things that are so important, pointed out Dixon, who was really impressed with the ability of the local swimmers, as well as their enthusiasm.

'It's all about personal growth, personal best times. That's what I focus on. Your satisfaction should come from personal improvement.'

Dixon, who was just 16 when she also won five gold medals and two silver at the 2000 Paralympics, continues to challenge herself on a daily basis, competing against able-bodied swimmers (swimmers without a disability) on the provincial and national level.

'It's not even the actual act of swimming, it's just the tool we use to go after making ourselves better people,' she said. 'It's about finding out what you're capable of. I'm going to take the skills I learned from swimming into the rest of my life.'

At just 21 years old, it's a good bet Dixon will once again be hearing the Canadian national anthem at the 2008 Olympics, standing on the podium to claim at least one medal. But when asked about her goals in the next few years, she is hesitant to get too far ahead of herself, or to get too serious.

'Tomorrow, I'm going to try and be better than I am today,' she said simply. 'As soon as the passion is gone, as soon as I'm ready to move onto something else, I will. But until then, I'll keep going.'

It's that attitude that is mainly responsible for Dixon's success in swimming so far. It's also that attitude, combined with her athletic ability, that will make it hard to top this year's swim camp in Christmas of 2006, admitted Thompson.

'It gets harder every year (to top the previous year's guest),' he said. 'The only thing that could probably do it now, is to get two gold medalists or something. It's going to be hard to top this.'

About 30 kids from Dawson, Mayo, Pelly, Watson Lake and Whitehorse descended on the pool this week for the Christmas camp, ranging in age from seven to 12. The competitive swimmers will hold their own camp, run by head coach Marek Poplawski, next week in Whitehorse

As the swimmers prepare for the AA and AAA championships in the New Year, Dixon offered her parting advice.

'I hope they know it's their choice what they do with their swimming. They all have the talent and the ability to do that. It's all about what they're willing to sacrifice to get there.

'Everyone has a passion in their life. They just have to find it.'