The concept that elite athletics can be for all has moved from the fringes to providing some of the most compelling stories in sports every two years at the Winter and Summer Paralympics.
It moved a step further last month in Gold Coast, Australia, with the 2018 Commonwealth Games becoming the first integrated multi-sport event with Para medals counting in the main medals table.
There will be two tryout opportunities across the country for potential Paralympic athletes to show their stuff. The first is Saturday at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence on the Camosun College Interurban campus. The second will be on June 9 in Montreal.
There is no charge and any athletes ages 14 to 25 with a physical or visual disability are welcome to try out. The tryouts are modelled after the all-comers national RBC Training Ground events for potential able-bodied Olympians, which featured an annual stop in March at the University of Victoria’s CARSA Gym.
The athlete ambassador on Saturday at PISE will be Whistler-based Mollie Jepsen, who won gold, silver and two bronze medals in alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. “Being a Paralympian is one of my greatest achievements, and I’m excited to have the chance to potentially introduce new athletes to Paralympic sport,” Jepsen said.
Every Paralympian has a story of resiliency to relate. Former Canadian wheelchair basketball team captain Richard Peter, run over by a school bus as a kid in Duncan, won Paralympic gold medals at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, London 2012 and silver at Beijing 2008, after being intrigued by a wheelchair sports demonstration at Cowichan High.
The exploits of Island multiple-medallist Paralympic swimmers Stephanie Dixon and Michael Edgson have landed them in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. They are also in the University of Victoria Sports Hall of Fame with 10-time Winter Paralympics-medallist skier Lauren Woolstencroft.
Trevor Hirschfield of Parksville was an Oceanside hockey product and BCHL prospect with the Cowichan Valley Capitals before a car accident in 2000 while visiting his grandparents in Sicamous. Hirschfield never gave up on his dream of becoming an athlete and captained Canada to Paralympics wheelchair rugby medals, winning silver at London in 2012 and bronze at Beijing in 2008.
Others have include MLA and prolific Paralympics wheelchair-medallist Michelle Stilwell of Parksville, Liam Stanley of Victoria in the ambulatory 800 metres, three-time Paralympics medallist John McRoberts from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and the Elk Lake-based Canadian adaptive rowing team.
Meanwhile, two-time Summer Paralympian Alex Dupont will be the athlete ambassador for the Montreal tryouts.
“Every Paralympian has a unique story — I decided to try wheelchair racing after seeing it on TV during the [2004] Athens Paralympics,” Dupont said in a statement.
“I hope to help others reach their dreams as well.”
To register for the Victoria or Montreal tryouts, visit: Paralympic.ca/paralympianssearch.
