Ten Island athletes on 128-member Team Canada
The Paralympics, held two weeks later in the Olympic city, have been described as a built-in story machine.
Pick any athlete competing and their tale is bound to be compelling. That sounds condescending, but it’s not. It’s just the nature of the Games — Paralympians clearly and obviously have overcome a great deal just to be there, and in many different ways.
Blind Tokyo Paralympics rower Victoria Nolan made the Times Colonist, but not the sports pages, when she was dropped off by a taxi driver in the wrong location in March in Victoria with no idea where she was.
The 46-year-old mother of two, competing in her fourth consecutive Paralympics after rowing in Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, said it was not the first time she had had a bad experience with a taxi.
Nolan is among 128 Canadian athletes competing in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, like the Olympics, postponed by a year. The opening ceremony is
3 a.m. PT on Tuesday. Team Canada, competing in 18 sports, includes 10 athletes from the Island. The youngest Canadian athlete is 17-year-old swimmer Nicholas Bennett of Parksville.
“It’s cool to be the youngest on the entire team. This one is for the experience, to get as close to the podium as possible, and Paris 2024 will be the time to medal,” said Bennett.
The oldest Canadian athlete is 64-year-old wheelchair-fencer Ruth Sylvie Morel of Pincourt, Que. Also on the veteran side in Tokyo, at 37, is four-time Paralympian and Canadian wheelchair rugby team co-captain Trevor Hirschfield of Parksville. The former Oceanside hockey player and BCHL Junior A prospect with the Cowichan Valley Capitals, before a van accident in 2000 while visiting his grandparents in Sicamous left him paraplegic, will be looking for that elusive Paralympics gold medal after bronze at Beijing 2008, silver at London 2012 and fourth place at Rio 2016.
There are 71 female athletes and 57 men on Team Canada for a 55.5 percent to 44.5 percent female-to-male ratio.
The Island athletes are Bennett, Hirschfield, Liam Stanley and Nate Riech in track, Amy Watt of Victoria in long jump, Nolan, Jessye Brockway of Mill Bay and Kyle Fredrickson of Duncan in para-rowing, Jessica Toumela of Victoria in paratriathlon and Deion Green of Victoria in wheelchair basketball.
The highlight will be what is brewing as an epic battle for gold between Island rivals Stanley and Riech in the men’s 1,500 metres. Fredrickson, Nolan and Brockway are podium threats in rowing and Green in wheelchair hoops and Hirschfield, a Ballenas Secondary graduate, in wheelchair rugby.
There are 55 Canadian athletes making their Paralympic debuts. That’s compared with 73 athletes with Paralympics experience, including 68 athletes returning from the Rio 2016 team.
Ontario has the most athletes with 42, Quebec next with 28 and B.C. with the third most at 21. Alberta has 20, Saskatchewan seven, New Brunswick four and Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Yukon with one each and one out-of-country resident.
The Canadian team chef de mission is Island swimming legend and Victoria Sports Hall of Fame inductee Stephanie Dixon, winner of 19 Paralympic medals, including seven golds and 10 silvers, over Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Dixon was born with one leg but also won national medals in able-bodied meets during her career with the University of Victoria Vikes.
“It has been a challenging 18 months preparing for these Games,” said Dixon.
“For some athletes, this will be their first international competition in nearly two years. It is a huge accomplishment to compete at these Paralympic Games, and everyone has been working so hard for this opportunity. I know we will see some remarkable performances in Tokyo and hear about some equally remarkable stories.”