Team Canada will face China on Thursday
PARIS—Team Canada hopes the week of preparation in Paris will translate on the court when they open the Paralympics against China on Thursday (12:15 p.m. ET).
“The energy is good. The energy is high. People are having fun. We’re dialled-in at practice,” said co-captain Cindy Ouellet, headed to her fifth summer games.
Along with China, the Senior Women’s National Team will face Great Britain (Saturday) before rounding out pool play against Spain on Sunday.
CBC Sports will stream all of Team Canada’s action in Paris – links to games can be found here.
Canada, which finished fifth at the last two Paralympic Games and the 2022 IWBF World Championships, defeated China 54-50 last June in Dubai to advance to the quarterfinals.
“They’re all good teams. It’s a very competitive tournament so just take it one game at a time, be as prepared as we can for each opponent,” said Michele Sung, heading to her first Paralympics as coach of the SWNT. “We know what we can bring to the table, so try to commit to a gameplan.”
Added Tara Llanes: “We feel good. We beat China at Worlds in Dubai; that’s our last matchup with them. GB, we just played – we had some really tough games – so I think we’re building upwards.”
As part of its Paralympic preparation, Canada played an exhibition game against Japan on Monday. This allowed the team to fine-tune aspects of their game before Thursday’s opener.
“Monday was a good game against Japan; we had a lot of energy. We need to try to bring that to the court against China,” said Ouellet.
“I think we’re glad we got a scrimmage against Japan to practice some things we’ve been working on,” Llanes said. “I felt like today our communication was great. We were swinging the ball; we were making things happen.”
In April, the SWNT punched its ticket to Paris with a commanding 88-30 victory over Algeria at the Women’s IWBF Repechage Tournament in Osaka, Japan.
All 12 athletes who won silver at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago are returning for the Paralympic Games.
“We’ll take it one game at a time,” Ouellet added. “Every team here is really good, so we need to be prepared and watch the video, but we’re really focusing on the China game first.”