Heroes in our Midst

Adrienne knows that life is the one true sport that calls on all that we have and all that we are. When she works with someone, she sees it as her job to help them be whole and healthy and to love every step in their journey, both the good and the bad. Adrienne’s journey from high school athlete to university starter to Olympic/Paralympic advisor was turbulent at times. The circumstances she found...

Inspired by the 1984 Olympics, Rhiannon started swimming at a club in Saskatoon at age seven. Her career would go on to span 27 years and include two Olympic Games and several national team appearances. But it almost did not happen. There were two occasions when Rhiannon wanted to leave swimming, and both turned out to be huge turning points. The first, when she was 12, she stepped away and tried...

Many of us are aware of what the term transgender means, but we really don’t understand it. Elliot Gray gets that, he notes, “I totally understand people who don't understand how being transgender could work or how your mind could think that way. But you’re never going to understand. Just like I will never understand the lived experience of a person of color. I will never live that life. But I acc...

When asked what advice he would provide to the world, Chris says, “ Be yourself and be genuine. If you're pretending to be someone, you're not, it’s going to impact you. And it's going to make things not as enjoyable. Also, then when people start to appreciate you for those things, it won't feel as authentic because it's not your real self. So, if you can, just be your genuine self and let things...

Emily Potter has always been very competitive, some might say ultra-competitive. Whether we are talking about basketball, sack racing (an event at summer family fun days growing up) or ringette net minding (in her early years), Emily loves to compete and hates to lose. She is so competitive that, growing up, no one could talk to her after a loss, her parents had to just leave her alone. Fast forwa...

Everyday activities sometimes change our lives. Leanne Taylor had a day like that in 2018. She and her boyfriend went for a mountain bike ride at trails they rode all the time. During the ride Leanne fell off her bike, going over the handlebars. Her injury was instant. She experienced a spinal cord injury, dislocating T10 on T11 and immediately had no sensation or function in her legs. She would n...

Chantal Givens is a Paralympian. She has one hand. Throughout her childhood Chantal’s parents treated her like a regular kid. She was encouraged to, and she liked to try all kinds of things as she was growing up. Her first competitive experiences came in the sport of diving, a sport she was part of for ten years, eventually competing at nationals against able bodied athletes (there was no para spo...

Inspired by the athletes competing in the wheelchair racing section of the Manitoba Marathon when he was six years old, Colin got hooked on wheelchair racing at a young age. Born with Spina Bifida, a wheelchair was Colin’s primary mode of transportation and, it turned out he could move pretty fast! A sprinter, Colin competes in the 100m, 200m and 400m, he says, because after about 50 seconds he ju...

You may be surprised to learn that most elite coaches never plan on coaching. They get pulled into the profession by accident, through a serendipitous event or by happenstance. Bill Johnson was pulled into coaching wheelchair basketball because he played the sport with his brother. His brother had a disability, Bill did not. Able bodied people can play wheelchair basketball with teammates who have...

When asked about what it is like to work with national teams, professional athletes and emergency room physicians, Cal will tell you that, “the stuff is the same, but the people are all different.” Adrienne will tell you one thing she has always admired about Cal is that he does what is right for the human being that sits in front of him. Cal is there for the people he works with, he speaks from t...

When he was little and attending preschool and kindergarten Tim figured he was just like the other kids that he played with on his street; he’d even pick up books and pretend to read them figuring he couldn’t read them because he didn’t yet know how to read. He didn’t know he couldn’t read them because he was blind. His mom had to explain to him that he was not able to see. While attending school...

“Go hard or go home” was Joanne’s mantra when she competed. It is safe to say it worked. At 16 she won three medals at her first Paralympics (a gold, a silver, and a bronze). Four years later she upped her game and came home with five gold. The youngest of four children in her family she was naturally competitive and keen to keep up. She loved swimming and it was a good fit for her as she is a bil...

“It doesn't matter where you are or who you are, you can make anything happen. It doesn't matter what the limitations, whether it be you’re living in a rural area, or you have disability. They're all just barriers that you can just shatter.” Jared’s words ring true. He is a person who makes things happen. In his graduating year from high school Jared was one of the top ten volleyball players in Ma...

Joey Johnson has played wheelchair basketball for Canada at the Paralympic Games five times and has 3 gold medals and 1 silver from those competitions. For 20 years he competed at the highest level and was in love with the sport. Initially though, basketball and Joey were not friends. He hated basketball. He did not like the game and did not want to play.  A diagnosis of Legg-Calve-Perthes Di...

Vlastimil (Vlastic) Cerny has represented two countries in international swimming. Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) and Canada.  However, in grade three he was also identified as a talented hockey player through the extensive Czechoslovakia athlete search program, but he had already started swimming, so swimming was it.  Now the head coach with Bison Swimming at the University of...

“She who has a large enough why can bear any how ” is Kelsey’s favorite quote.  The “how” that carries Kelsey into the future will likely look quite different than what she expected a few months ago, but given her commitment to process and her unwillingness to give up, we have no doubt she will get it done. Early in the month of March 2020 Kelsey Wog posted the fastest time in the world in th...

Master Jae Park is the third generation of his family to be involved with Taekwondo. His father is a Grandmaster, he achieved his black belt at age 6, he coaches his daughter Skylar who has qualified for the Olympic Games in Taekwondo. But would you believe that a fall in his last speedskating race (a 400m short track event) changed the course of his life? If he had won, he would have stuck with s...

Skylar Park prefers to land hits to the head. A hit to the head gives you more points in a Taekwondo fight than a hit to other parts of the body. Funny thing though, she doesn’t see a hit to the head as violent. She explains , I'll be talking to my friends and if we're talking about, say UFC or sports like football or rugby, I'm like, Oh my god, I would never do that. It's so violent. And my frien...

“I had a very tough practice in 2017 getting ready for the senior nationals and I remember running the sprints and doing the overload . . . and then laying on the mat in complete stillness, in my mind and in my body. It was then that it hit me, “This is why I do it.” I think a lot, I’m very cerebral and wrestling gave me stillness in a way that I didn't know how to get without it. It was [during]...

Justin Duff played volleyball for Canada, but he did not get there without being cut and spending time on the bench. He was cut from his JV volleyball team (he had never played before), he was cut from the Team Manitoba Canada Games Basketball team (when he was 6’6” with a 40 inch vertical) and he was not a starter in his first year of university volleyball with the University of Winnipeg. His vol...

Janine planned on playing basketball at the University of Manitoba, but a chance meeting at a Karate class in the summer of 2000 changed all that when someone suggested she try rowing.  After a rough few days that included a few bruises and some unplanned swimming when her boat flipped, Janine found her rhythm and made the 2001 Canada Games team for Manitoba on her way an 8th place finish at...

Chantal Van Landeghem was in the pool before she could walk. Her Dad would take her and her sister to the pool to play and just spend time in the water. That early introduction fostered Chantal’s love of the water and contributed to her feeling at ease and at peace there. She dreamed of making a national team and going to the Olympics as early as age 5 and at age 12 she attended her first internat...