The Parapan American Games are in high gear in Toronto. They follow a dazzling opening ceremony Friday that saw over 1,600 athletes from 28 countries file into the new stadium at York University to inaugurate the largest-ever edition of the Games.
The Parapan Am Games, which run through Sunday, follow the 2015 Pan Am Games that ended two weeks ago.
So successful were those games that a recent poll suggested that about three quarters of Canadians and residents of the Toronto area (76 per cent and 73 per cent respectively) say the city should think seriously about bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Canada largest team ever–216 athletes–was dressed in red and grey with red Maple Leaf caps. Flag bearer Marco Dispaltro, the world’s No. 1 boccia player in his category, led his teammates, performing 360-degree wheelies on his motorized wheelchair.
Among the torch bearers at the ceremony were Steve Daniel and Dominic Larocque. Both were injured while serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. Both have won Paralympics medals.
The final two in the torch line were Canadian sports legends Rick Hansen and Chantal Petitclerc.
Hansen, who lost the use of his legs in an automobile accident when he was 15, is best known his 26-month “Man in Motion” trip around the world from 1985 to 1987.
The tour covered more than 40,000 kilometres through 34 countries on four continents before crossing Canada. It raised $26 million for spinal cord research and quality of life initiatives for disabled people.
Hansen handed the torch off to Chantal Petitclerc for the final leg and the lighting of the Games’ cauldron.
Petitclerc lost the use of her legs in a farm accident at the age of 13 then went on to become Canada’s most-decorated athlete ever, winning a total of 21 medals, including 14 golds, over five Paralympics
After winning five golds in wheelchair racing in 2008 in Beijing, she was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year and the Canadian Press’s Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada’s female athlete of the year.
Canada is hoping to finish in the top three in medals at the Games (after finishing second to the U.S. in July’s Pan Ams).The stiffest competion is expected to come from the U.S. and Brazil.
All 15 competitions at the Parapans are qualifiers for next summer’s Rio Paralympics.
Teddy Katz, a long-time CBC journalist, is now director of media relations and chief spokesman for this year’s Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.
He joined RCI by phone from Toronto on Monday to talk about the both the Games and the calibre of the world-class athletes gracing the competitions, all of them qualifiers for next summer’s Rio Paralympics.
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