Team Canada opens against France on Friday
PARIS – The Senior Men’s National Team will look to pick up where they left off last time they were in France when they open the Paralympics.
Team Canada punched its ticket to the Paris Games in April in Antibes, France, with a thrilling 72-60 victory over Italy in a must-win game.
Canada opens the Paralympics today at 12:15 p.m. ET against the host, France.
CBC Sports will stream all of Team Canada’s action in Paris – links to games can be found here.
Team Canada met France at the Men’s IWBF Repechage Tournament, falling 61-55 in group play.
“They’re going to have a huge crowd; they’re at home. That might play against them, might play for them – we’ll see,” said co-captain Nik Goncin, who is at his third Paralympic Games.
“For a bunch of our players, Tokyo was their first Paralympics; they haven’t witnessed what 20,000 in the stands feels like. We may have some communication struggles but we’re planning for it, so I think we’re ready.”
Bo Hedges, at his fifth Paralympic Games, is expecting high energy at Bercy Arena for the opener.
“It’s going to be amazing starting against the home team – the atmosphere with the host, it’s always cool to play them,” he said. “I’ve done it before, and the energy will be unreal in there. That’ll be good.”
Following Friday’s game against France, the SMNT meets Great Britain on Saturday before wrapping up pool play against Germany on Sept. 2.
“The Pool is tough – both groups are super tough – so there’s no easy games, and so we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’ll do what we can and see where we’re at after the pool play,” said Hedges.
Despite the challenge ahead, the group is prepared, said Goncin.
“We had a tournament before this in Germany and some friendlies against Australia before we even got into the village, which helps,” he said. “I think we feel pretty good. Everybody is getting along, so I think the vibes are good.
“We’re taking an underdog mentality to everything and ready to go.”
The men finished eighth at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, sixth at the 2022 World Championships, and won a bronze medal in Santiago at the 2023 Parapan American Games.
“This group, the core, has been together since Hamburg in 2018,” said Hedges. “There are 10 or 11 of us that have been consistent, so we know each other and what we want to do. I think we’re going to do what we can, and it’s going to go well for us.”