Nepean teen looking to qualify for Tokyo Games in para kayak
Ferron-Bouius has only been training on the water for a year, but he learns fast
For most of his life, Gabe Ferron-Bouius was getting attention by what he was doing on frozen water with a goalie stick in his hand.
For the past year, he has been pushing his limits and opening doors with his efforts on open water with a kayak paddle in his hand.
A Nepean High School student who turned 18 in March, Ferron-Bouius is busy putting in his final strokes before the 2021 ICF ParaCanoe/Kayak World Cup at Szeged, Hungary in May.
After only seriously taking up kayaking at the Rideau Canoe Club last summer, he has a shot at qualifying for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo Aug. 24-Sept. 5.
“For me, being on the younger side of the athletes, I'm looking toward 2024 and 2026, long-distance, but if things happen earlier, great,” he said in a phone interview from Burnaby, B.C., where he's training with Canada's national canoe and kayak squads.
“It's about long-term development and continuing to get better at high performance.”
Ferron-Bouius has plenty of history on that front. Nothing has stopped him from chasing his elite sports dreams.
He was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia — a shortening or absence of a fibula — at birth, and his right foot and ankle didn't develop properly.
He had major surgery at nine months old, with his foot removed and his heel pad attached to his tibia. He was fitted for his first prosthetic leg as a toddler and kept running to sports, thriving in everything from rugby to ultimate Frisbee to volleyball to badminton to skiing.
The first love was hockey, though, and he excelled as a Triple-A goaltender, advancing all the way to play for the Kanata Lasers under-18 squad in 2018-19, working toward what he hoped could become a university scholarship.
“I like playing sports with friends and it's not about a disability,” he said. “It's about how can you play these sports and get better at them.
“Hockey was my main sport since I was eight years old and I played high level, able-bodied hockey with my peers. The following year, though, (Kanata) went younger and I didn't make that team. I decided to turn my attention to something else and kayak was something to fill the time.”
Ferron-Bouius had attended a wide-ranging Paralympic training camp in 2016 and says “it was always something in the back of my mind” that he could possibly pursue.
He took to kayaking like a fish to water, jumping to faster, more streamlined boats in a hurry.
“He came up pretty quick,” said Reid Farquharson, Under-18 High Performance Lead at the Rideau Canoe Club. “Last June, he was timed at 1:02 in the 200 metres and within a month and a half, he had cut off 10 seconds.”
The times got faster and faster. Along the way, Ferron-Bouius has experimented with different prosthetics.
“I'm still figuring it out, I've had three or four different iterations” — to find the best fit in the kayak.
“I stayed on the water (in Ottawa) as long as I could and paddled until it was snowing, but being from Ontario, paddling through the winter isn't an option,” he said of the move to train with the national team in B.C., while completing Grade 12 online.
Due to COVID-19, there have been limited opportunities to race in international regattas, but based on his times while training in B.C., Ferron-Bouius was invited to compete at the world championships in Hungary.
“It's the mecca for the sport, it's their hockey,” said Farquharson.
Meanwhile, the family back in Ottawa — mother Aimee Ferron, father Derek Bouius, younger brother Emery and younger sister
Zahra — have been watching it all develop from afar.
Due to pandemic restrictions, there's no opportunity to visit B.C., to travel to Hungary, or to Tokyo if he qualifies for the Games.
“It surprises me, and then it doesn't surprise me,” said Bouius. “At a certain point, it's just what he wants to do and that's not a surprise. Other times, I step back and think this is pretty special to be able to do that.”
There's plenty of hard work involved. Ferron-Bouius trains twice a day, six days a week, with both on-water and off-ice workouts.
“It's his first time competing in a Para Sport,” said Ferron. “Every other time, it was able body, including the Triple-A hockey and he went to the nationals in ultimate.
“You have to have a certain natural ability for sure, but he's done everything he can to improve. He was well aware of all the time standards he needed to meet and did all the research. It's quite exciting. At first he didn't know whether he would get close to those times.”
Growing up, there was never any fear of him trying a new sport.
“No, never,” said Ferron. “He was so agile, he had such a great attitude and he was willing to try anything.”
Throughout his life, Ferron-Bouius says his motivation has been deeply personal, a case of challenging himself to improve at whatever sport he's competing in.
He can't say enough about the support he has received along the way to make it happen.
“War Amps have been a huge part of my life and they've provided financial and other kinds of aid,” he said, “specifically for kids with amputations to be themselves and do what they want to do, so that a disability is not an issue for them.”
Ferron-Bouius didn't necessarily set out of be a role model, but if his successes in sport help inspire others, he's excited at being able to make a difference.
“I'm internally motivated just to better myself,” he said. “I really want to push to see what the body can do and to show other people with physical disabilities what they can achieve.
“A lot of people don't see what they can do, they see being disabled as not being able to compete and enjoy the sports. But, yes, you can try.”
For Ferron-Bouius, the world is full of opportunity.
You have to have a certain natural ability for sure, but he’s done everything he can to improve.