Marco Dispaltro, a 48-year-old boccia player, will lead the Canadian team into Toronto’s Rogers Centre at the opening ceremonies of the 2015 Parapan American Games on Friday.
Josh Dueck, who carried Canada’s flag in the closing ceremonies at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics after skiing to gold and silver there, presented the flag to Mr. Dispaltro on Wednesday, wrapping it around the boccia player’s shoulders.
This will be the fifth edition of the Parapan Am Games and will feature 1,608 athletes with physical disabilities from 28 countries competing in 15 sports.
All sports will be Paralympic qualifiers for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
The Parapan Games follow last month’s Pan American Games, which were successful enough to spark speculation about Toronto bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Mr. Dispaltro won a silver medal in singles at the 2011 Parapan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico and was a bronze medallist in mixed pairs at the 2012 London Paralympics.
He entered the 2015 season ranked No.1 in the world in his classification.
Mr. Dispaltro, a resident of St-Jerome, Quebec, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a teenager.
He took up wheelchair rugby when he was 25 and later switched to
wheelchair tennis.
Because of the degenerative nature of his disability, he now plays boccia, a. precision ball sport, similar to bocce.
It was originally designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now includes athletes with other severe disabilities affecting motor skills.
In 1984 it became a Paralympic sport in 1984 By 2008 it was being played in over fifty countries world-wide.
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