Mackenzie Beauvais-Nikl brings perspective to Special Olympics Colorado

Mackenzie Beauvais-Nikl holds a place in history — the first athlete to serve as Co-Board Chair for a Special Olympics program anywhere in the world.

Twenty-six-year-old Mackenzie Beauvais-Nikl isn’t just an ordinary athlete. A Colorado native, shewas diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a young age. Numerous trials and errors at various elementary schools put Beauvais-Nikl at a crossroads in her education, until a breakthrough changed her life forever.

Beauvais-Nikl credits her parents, who adopted her at the age of two months, as the most important people in her life. The unknown presented by her diagnoses was concerning, so she and her family sought out the Tennyson Center for Children to get to the root of the problem.

“We found Tennyson Center, and Tennyson Center for Children is a treatment center to help kids find their feelings, I guess,” Beauvais-Nikl said in an interview with FanSided. “And I did that for a year and a half, because like, it was very great. And then I transitioned out of there, to this wonderful elementary school called Fairview Elementary School, and the teacher was amazing. Ms. Shauna, she was like the best teacher. I still talk to her and check in. That was like my elementary days, and then going to middle school was actually really hard because we didn’t really know back in my earlier school years what autism really was at the time. We did know but we didn’t have the right training to teach someone with autism [to live their life].”

When Beauvais-Nikl finally entered high school, athletics allowed her to thrive and find her niche. Her initial hesitation at becoming involved in the school’s unified program (a mix of able-bodied and non-able-bodied athletes playing sports together) was put to rest when her brother tried his hand at numerous sports, including soccer.

“My brother started playing sports, so I was like ‘oh I really want to play sports.’ I think it will be really good for me,” she said. “I joined a regular volleyball team. And I loved doing it, but the coaches didn’t really know how to coach me and teach me in the way that I learned best. I quit doing all of the sports I [originally] wanted to do.”

Luckily, a new opportunity arose.

“I found Denver Parks and Recreation and they have a community called Adaptive Recreation and my mom signed me up for all of those activities. And then they said, ‘Maybe she’ll like doing sports, and my mom’s like, ‘oh I don’t know. She had a really bad experience with that before.’ And so she signed me up for soccer. And for Special Olympics, I just really loved it. I mean, I just blossomed from there and then I went back to high school with an open mind saying, ‘maybe I could write chords again and so I joined the unified court [at school]. And as I said that I was special. And they have seen me through all of the struggles that I’ve been through, and they have been family to me so it’s really cool to see where I was and see where I am today.”

After a successful high school stint, Beauvais-Nikl enrolled at MSU Denver and graduated with a degree in photojournalism. However, sports was her biggest passion, so she began playing soccer and participating in snowboarding competitions before the trajectory of her life changed again.

Mackenzie Beauvais-Nikl is the Unified Co-Chair for Special Olympics Colorado

Currently, Beauvais-Nikl is making a historic impact on the Special Olympics community. In January, Beauvais-Nikl was brought on as the Unified Co-Chair for Special Olympics Colorado, becoming a pioneer for the disability community in the process. This is the first time an athlete has served as a Board Chair for any Special Olympics program anywhere in the world. Her roles consist of attending all of the board meetings and serving as an athlete voice for the organization.

Megan Scremin, the president and CEO of Special Olympics Colorado, spoke highly of Beauvais- Nikl and the impact she has had on the organization. Scremin will enter her third year at the helm in December.

“I got to know Mackenzie as an athlete many years ago, She has been an athlete, an athlete leader. She’s a multi-sport athlete, so we always get to interact with her regularly. She’s participated on a Rapids soccer team, which is a partnership with MLS,” Scremin said in an interview with FanSided.

“And so I’ve gotten to know her a lot. That being said, in 2019, I ended up traveling with her and her unified partner to Abu Dhabi, where they were participating in the Global Leadership Summit.  I served as their mentor and we certainly got a lot of time on both of our travels there. Essentially, the entire time there, I saw a remarkable person. She is a leader. She is never the loudest in the room, you know, but she would network with everyone and learn from everyone and listen, and so we really got to know each other quite well there. I’ve also known her because she was serving on our state board of directors. So even before I served on in the CEO role, I would attend our board meetings and then also for a time, oversaw our athletes’ leadership programming. So I was able to see her kind of gain so much confidence through her participation as a board member.”

With Beauvais-Nikl living with a disability, Scremin relies on her experiences to make critical decisions that could impact the organization for years to come.

“She is incredibly empathetic,” Scremin said. “And she is so thoughtful, is always looking out for how somebody else may be feeling in a situation, be it me, be it her fellow athletes, coaches, her family. She’s always like, really empathetic and thoughtful in making sure that everyone else is okay. And I think that that empathy is something that I learned from her I look to her, because she really brings a perspective and what others may be thinking, and how decisions we make may impact others. I think that’s a really, really important thing that she brings.

“The other thing is honesty. She is always very open and honest with the feedback never in a bad way. She brings that feedback with empathy. And I think those two things are incredible together. Because the feedback she brings is invaluable. That’s the reason we’re here to work alongside. I work for Mackenzie and for people with intellectual disabilities and to have her perspective and voice at the table. And feedback is really important. So [empathy] is something that I value very much for honest feedback.”

As for the future, Beauvais-Nikl wants to leave a lasting legacy on Special Olympics Colorado and hopes that more people who live with disabilities can fill her shoes. To put it simply, she doesn’t want to be the last person in her population to take on the Unified Co-Chair role.

“I really want people to see what people with intellectual disabilities are able to do anything they put their mind to. Me being the first athlete ever, in any chapter, around the world [to hold the Unified Co-Chair position],” Beauvais-Nikl said, “this is a great opportunity to show everyone that I am able to sit as a co-chair and help facilitate meetings with my co-chair buddy, Josh Ricky. He’s amazing. He’s a really good unified partner, and he has a daughter actually that is an athlete for Special Olympics Colorado. So, he knows. He knows the areas, and what we need to fix [to get better].”

Beauvais-Nikl will serve as the Unified Co-Chair until 2024, as her impact continues to inspire many Special Olympics athletes across the country.

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