Ernest’s Story: Moving Forward Beyond Every Limit

• Special Olympic World Games medalist at both winter and summer sports. 2017 Austria x- country skiing won a gold and a silver. 2019 Dubai swimming won 2 silver.
• Prolific Artist started painting at the age of 33yr old (2023)
• Profoundly functional non-verbal Autistic adult

He became the first Yukon medalist athlete to represent Canada in Special Olympics World Games in both winter and summer sports.

A Yukon visual artist that only began painting at age 33 (2023) and sold his first painting to the Yukon government in 2024. In 2025, he participated in a three-month exhibition at the Yukon Arts Centre with Dr Colin Dorward, where more than 70% of the works sold to collectors in Canada and abroad.

What makes Ernest’s journey especially remarkable is that he is profoundly autistic, functionally nonverbal, and considered high needs. He cannot convey his needs such as he is hungry, tired, uncomfortable, or needs help. His caregivers must often interpret his needs for him.

He learned to ski at 24, competed on the world stage at 27, and discovered painting at 33. His story is simply a reminder that a person’s possibilities cannot always be measured by the limitations we see first. Nothing is too late.

May his story bring a smile, renew hope, and remind us that every journey has its own timing.

Below are some of Ernest’s achievements and stories. Enjoy reading, and we’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.

ATHLETIC Ernest’s achievement in sports was unbelievable and bewildering.

Overcoming challenges: Do you know Ernest was water-phobic as a teenager? Letting his competitor passed in skiing competition. How to pace his speed in competition? The road to the award ceremony podium did not come easy, but we made it. Let us share with you how we helped him overcame the challenges and won big at the World Games.

Ernest, at the age of 27 won gold and silver for Team Canada in the Special Olympic World Winter Games in Austria in 2017. He claimed the first and maybe the last medal for the team again in the Summer Games in Dubai in 2019. That made him the first special needs medalist athlete to represent the Yukon/Team Canada in two seasonal sports: winter and summer.

Click here for his athletic journey

ARTISTIC He only started painting at the age of 33 (2023) when his day center hired an art coordinator. One year later, he sold one of his painting to the Yukon government.

Two years (2025) after he tried painting, Ernest with Dr Colin Dorwood, have their art exhibition at the Yukon Art Gallery for three months. More than 50% pieces were sold to local, national, and overseas collectors.

His disAbility, being functionally non verbal, and limited comprehension skill have become his Ability to do more through his painting. With his new found talent, he can use his arts to bless others. A testimony of love, hard work, and divine arrangement.

Click here for more of Ernest’s art in blog.

AUTISTIC. Ernest is functionally non-verbal and will needs 24/7 care. We have cared and helped him to be where he is today for the last 35 years as a healthy, happy and motivated young adult in sports and arts. He left our care in 2025 to be in an approved home. We will be planning for the next chapter of his and our life.

we hope our journey can become a road map, a lesson to help others and their journey. Marriage, siblings, caregiving, exhaustion, finding solution, hope, what happened when parents age, housing, finances…are topics that we will be sharing.

Having a special needs children is not the typical marriage life that anyone will prepare for. It almost break our marriage, we do not want to see your family being one. To follow our family’s journey Click here.

Some of Ernest Chua’s paintings in the gallery