HSB26 HIGH ACHIEVERS: Multi-sport athlete Naomi LeBlanc battles pain, but finds academic, athletic success

By Martin Cleary

Naomi LeBlanc is scheduled to celebrate a major milestone in her young life Thursday at her St. Pius X High School Grade 12 graduation.

Maybe the word major isn’t strong enough to adequately describe everything she has had to experience to reach the finish line of her memorable and medically-mesmerizing journey.

There certainly were plenty of uplifting and rewarding moments academically, athletically and socially, but there also was that extended time when she lived with undiagnosed pain, was sentenced to a hospital bed for four months and had expensive, out-of-country surgery.

But she continues to live with the pain.

Relief could be several more months down the road, but LeBlanc is OK with that. At 18, she has the courage, determination and resilience to face challenges head on to allow herself to try to enjoy the best life possible for herself.

When LeBlanc was in Grade 10, she started to experience severe stomach pains. Doctors couldn’t explain why this was happening and told her to keep living her life. But as more time passed, the medical issue continued to irritate her. It was hard for her to eat, there was unexpected weight loss and it was a challenge to get to her daily classes at St. Pius.

At the start of Grade 11 in September, 2025, doctors still couldn’t diagnose her medical mystery, which had now forced her to withdraw from playing tennis, badminton and swimming. Despite the abdominal pain, sports were her lifeline to managing the pain.

As a result, she was admitted to hospital, where she stayed from September through December. After weeks and weeks of testing, she learned she was dealing with a rare disorder labelled MALS – Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome. It also is referred to as celiac artery compression.

LeBlanc had some of the main symptoms of MALS – intense stomach pain after eating and exercise and weight loss. The pain is caused because the fibrous band of the diaphragm sits too low, compressing the celiac artery and the surrounding bundle of nerves.

Bridget Mooney, who is LeBlanc’s mother, found a specialist in Leipzig, Germany, who specializes in MALS. LeBlanc and her mother flew to Germany for an appointment, learned more about MALS, but elected not to have surgery in Germany.

As a method of managing the pain, LeBlanc was given a celiac plexus block to inject medication into nerves in the upper abdomen.

“It has given me my life back to some extent,” LeBlanc said in a phone interview. “I was able to go back to school and play tennis.”

In January, LeBlanc was admitted to the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, which has performed more than 750 MALS surgeries. LeBlanc’s two-hour surgery was considered successful, but the recovery from pain can be instant or take as long as a year. At this point, LeBlanc is still embraced by the pain, but remains hopeful it will disappear soon.

“They did what we wanted to do. Recovery is not linear. Some feel great right away and some after a year,” she added. “It’s a lot more difficult for me than expected. I’m still hopeful it will continue (to improve).”

Despite the pain and the help of a course of celiac plexus block injections, LeBlanc can see herself playing tennis and entering tournaments in Ottawa this summer.

In September, she plans to attend Queen’s University to study commerce at the Smith School of Business and try out for the Gaels’ tennis team.

As a tennis player for St. Pius, she won the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association girls’ open singles title in Grade 10 and Grade 12, which qualified her to play at the OFSAA provincial high school championships and helped her win the school’s tennis MVP award both years. She didn’t play tennis in Grade 9 because of an injury and abdominal pain kept her sidelined in Grade 11.

In badminton, LeBlanc played girls’ doubles and was third at the city high school championships in Grade 10. At the St. Pius athletic awards, she was the badminton MVP in Grade 10 and Grade 12.

LeBlanc was a competitive swimmer with Swim Ottawa for about five years and, after a three-year break, decided to return to the pool to represent St. Pius in high school meets. She set a NCSSAA record in the 50-metre backstroke (33.0 seconds) and was on the winning 4×50-metre freestyle relay team with her sister Rowyn. At the St. Pius athletics awards earlier this month, LeBlanc also was the recipient of the swimming MVP honour.

While on the St. Pius swim team, she used her years of experience to coach some of her teammates in specific areas.

“To be honest, I had no expectations,” LeBlanc said about her return to the pool. “I was worried because I hadn’t done much training.”

Unfortunately, she missed her one and only OFSAA swimming championships because of her surgery.

As a competitive tennis player outside high school, LeBlanc was ranked in the top 30 in Ontario for girls’ U16 in 2024. She played in many provincial tournaments with a good mix of results, but one of her best tournaments was the Bloomex Cup at the Ottawa Tennis and Lawn Bowling Club, when she reached the girls’ U16 doubles semifinals and the singles quarterfinals.

During her Swim Ottawa career, she was recognized after the 2022-23 season with the leadership and sportsmanship award as well as toughest trainer award. In 2018-19, she earned the most dedicated swimmer award.

That commitment and dedication to sports also carried over to her academic studies at St. Pius, where she had the highest overall subject average in Grade 10 and Grade 11 and the second-best average in Grade 9.

“I’m very competitive by nature. Being in competitive sports, I learned the value of discipline and hard work. I carried that over to my academics,” LeBlanc offered.

“The pain has not gone yet. I don’t regret having the surgery. I must believe it will work. Now, it’s a waiting game. I must live life the best I can.”

Read More of our 2026 High School Best Series as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2026