Wheelchair hoopsters hope for rebound
In the early 2000s, the Paralympic men’s wheelchair basketball tournament didn’t truly get serious for Team Canada until the quarter-finals or semis came around. And by the end, they likely would finish with a gold medal around their necks.
After the past five years, however, such guarantees are scarce.
“In 2021, it’s harder than ever to win a medal,” said Patrick Anderson, the four-time Canadian Paralympian with as many medals to his name, after having just arrived in Tokyo.
From 2000-12, the Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team won three Paralympic golds: back to back in 2000 and 2004, and another in 2012 at the London Games, along with a silver at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. But at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Anderson didn’t play, and the team finished last in its group with an 0-5 record, ending in 12th place. Two years later, at the 2018 world championships, the team finished 12th in a 16-team field, but bounced back in Lima, Peru at the 2019 Parapan Am Games with a silver medal, losing to the United States in the final.
Since Lima, the team hasn’t played a meaningful game of basketball together, leaving the Canadians heading into Tokyo without a standard of play they know is there.
“I think it still sort of casts a bit of a shadow because it was just a very disappointing result (in Rio),” Anderson said. “Winning sometimes can breed winning, so we don’t have a lot of quality.”
Entering Tokyo, the group looks significantly different from previous iterations. The core group of players is noticeably smaller in stature and David Eng, one of the team’s leaders for nearly 20 years and Canada’s flag-bearer in Rio, will be absent due to recently realigned eligibility standards around mobility levels.
Anderson gave a nod to 30-year-old Nik Goncin, a Rio 2016 returnee, for filling the leadership void left by Eng, acting as a bridge between the team’s younger and older generations.
While time has naturally brought tides of change to the group’s makeup, COVID-19 created tectonic shifts to how Team Canada was able to practise together over the past year and a half.
While some were able to get together for distanced shootarounds as case numbers dipped at points in the pandemic, Anderson was in New York playing in a league from February 2020 until this June, when Canadian citizens could cross the border without a mandatory two-week quarantine.
When he returned, he saw a shift in the team, one he believes bodes well for their chances in Tokyo.
“The silver lining of it is, I haven’t seen the guys in a year and a half, so sort of just the change in the vibe around the team was very apparent to me,” he said. “It just seems like guys are really all-in.”