The Hamilton native has her eyes on a roster spot on Canada’s U25 Team
Charlotte McElroy was immediately hooked on wheelchair basketball the first time she had the opportunity to try the sport. McElroy was just six-years-old when she attended an event at McMaster University where she had the chance to participate in various sports.
The Hamilton, Ont. native recalls being persuaded to try wheelchair basketball at the event and has “been in the sport ever since.”
“Chris Chandler and Melanie Hawtin came up to me and were like, ‘You got to try wheelchair basketball, c’mon,’” McElroy said. “I was six at the time and a little hesitant, but I went. Chris had some good tactics to intrigue a six-year-old, so props to him for that.
“I saw wheelchair basketball, and I was like, ‘Okay, I found my sport’.”
Now 14, McElroy has her eyes set on cracking Team Canada’s roster for the 2023 U25 Women’s World Championship this fall.
McElroy has had plenty of competition this year to prepare her for the U25 Worlds in Bangkok, Thailand.
In February, she represented Team Ontario at the 2023 Canada Winter Games
“I was so happy to represent my province on such a high level,” McElroy said. “I was ecstatic, and I was super happy with the team that I competed with. We all helped each other get to that point, and we were excited to represent the province.”
Ontario finished seventh at the Canada Winter Games, an improvement on their eighth-place finish at the 2022 Junior Nationals in Charlottetown.
“It was night and day. I’m proud of all the work my teammates put in and countless hours in the gym,” she said. “I feel like we’ve been doing a good job, and we keep developing, which you can’t complain about.”
McElroy was one of 12 athletes to attend the Women’s Under-25 camp at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre in March—the first step in the preparation for Worlds in October (Oct. 3-8).
She left the three-day camp with areas to improve throughout spring and summer.
“They gave me a couple of key things that they wanted me to focus on, and I’ve put them into practices and telling my coaches like, ‘Hey, I really want to work on this,’” McElroy explained. “I’ve been working hard on improving before the August camp.”
Then in April, McElroy suited up for Ontario at the CWBL Women’s National Championship in Montreal.
The tournament gave McElroy another opportunity to see where her game was at.
“For Women’s Nationals, I couldn’t have asked for a better team and a better opportunity to kind of show my skills and play with and against some National Team members,” she said. “A lot of athletes that I’ve looked up to my whole life were there, and I got to meet them for the first time, so I was a little starstruck, but I was so happy to be there.”
With the next Women’s Under-25 camp scheduled for August, McElroy is fine-tuning her game in preparation.
“No matter if I make the team or not, I’m just super happy for the experience and the bonds that I made through that team,” said McElroy. “I’ve been training hard this summer to get the opportunity to represent my country, hopefully—I feel like that would be a pretty big achievement for me.”
Off the court, McElroy just completed Grade 9 and hopes to pursue a career as a lawyer one day.