Canada Games
Para-athlete won Team Nova Scotia’s first medal of the Canada Summer Games
Southwestern Nova Scotia represented in Winnipeg.
Yarmouth para-athlete Ryan Shay says it was very exciting to be at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. He provided some excitement for others when he won Team Nova Scotia’s first medal of the games.
Shay captured the silver medal in para-discus on Monday, July 31.
“It wasn’t my farthest throw,” said Shay, following the sweltering event. Shay had posted earlier in the day on his Facebook page that the temperature felt like 40 degrees with the humidity. “Considering the heat, I did all right.”
Shay threw 11.5 metres. Not a personal best, but good enough for silver. In his other event of the games – para shotput – Shay placed fourth in the finals, achieving a distance 5.75 metres, which was below his usual distances.
Shay had gone into the summer games ranked third in discus and second in shotput. Prior to Winnipeg he had won two gold medals in shotput and discus at an Atlantic championship event.
Earlier in July, Shay had achieved a personal best in discus at the Canadian National Track & Field Championships in Ottawa, throwing 12.20 metres. He had won bronze medals in discus and shotput at that competition.
Shay said participating in the Summer Games opening ceremonies was “amazing.”
“There were ceremonies done by indigenous persons, a performance by artists including Serena Ryder, they lit the flame and most excitingly I got to shake Justin Trudeau’s hand and take a picture with him,” he said. “It was a blast and a great way to start the week.”
Shay has been in a wheelchair since he lost the use of his legs in a 2013 car accident in Yarmouth that left him a quadriplegic. In the last few years he has trained and competed in para- track events provincially, nationally and internationally. He hopes to reach the Paralympics in 2020.
This week he is turning his attention to Shay’s Opportunities for Disabled Youth summer multi-sport camp that will be running Aug. 8-11 in the Halifax area.
This was Shay’s second Canada Games. In 2015 he competed at the winter games in wheelchair basketball.