Lionel Tamoki
Biography
Lionel Tamoki was first introduced to wheelchair basketball after meeting coach Marc Antoine Ducharme.
Tamoki was dribbling a basketball on his walk home from school when Ducharme stopped the then-teenager to gauge his interest in the game. Growing up, Tamoki had aspirations of playing professional stand up basketball, but due to his disability, he realized in high school that wouldn’t be possible.
Though excited at the prospect of trying wheelchair basketball, Tamoki didn’t get his parents’ approval to play. The Montreal native waited two years before another wheelchair basketball opportunity came to him to try the game.
The basketball coach at Tamoki’s high school set up an opportunity for him to try wheelchair basketball, and Tamoki finally got to play during a charity game.
Tamoki made his National Team debut at the 2022 IWBF Men’s Under-23 World Championship in Phuket, Thailand.
The competitions provided Tamoki with an opportunity to assess where his game was.
Tamoki is making his Senior Men’s National Team debut at the 2025 IWBF Americas Cup.
Off the court, he is a theatre major at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he also plays basketball for the Moving Mavs.