After getting a taste of competition for the first time in 18 months during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, Tamara Steeves is looking forward to growing and improving with her teammates.
Team Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team recently finished fifth at the Tokyo Games with a 68-49 win over Japan during the classification round.
“I think we’re really hungry and looking forward to some more competition,” said Steeves. “We want to come better than what we did in Tokyo. I think we have that in the back of our minds, and we’ll be ready to push forward.”
Tokyo was the third Paralympics for Steeves, who turns 32 on Thursday (Sept. 23), and she’s embracing more of a leadership role that comes with her experience on the team.
Steeves points to former national team member Elaine Allard as a model for her leadership style.
“I think I lead by example of how I play on the court—it’s not so much speaking wise,” she explained. “I show how hard we can work on the court, and I think that shows my leadership. “My role is to be more of a leader for the lower classification players. It’s just more teaching the younger players what they can learn from my experience.”
While getting back into competition following an 18-month layoff was admittedly difficult for Steeves and her teammates, the Mississauga, Ont. called the Tokyo experience a good learning opportunity for the group.
“I think we worked a lot on just playing as one team, not playing selfish,” Steeves said. “I think when everyone succeeded, we succeeded together. It wasn’t just one person that succeeded, we all succeeded when we played well as a team. I think just being together as a team and being on court again felt amazing.”
Off the court, the two weeks in Tokyo provided an excellent bonding opportunity for Steeves and her teammates to learn more about one another.
“I think just getting to know people personally on an off-the-court level was good. Sometimes we’re different on the court than how we are off the court,” she said. “Just getting to know people off the court in Tokyo was a lot better than what has been recently in the last couple of years.”
Despite not earning the desired result in Tokyo, Steeves said it’s always an honour to represent Canada at international competitions.
“It’s always amazing to represent Canada, put that jersey on and feel the support of the people back home cheering us on. It’s pretty amazing,” she said.