“Nothing can stop Team Canada”

The COVID-19 pandemic, Tokyo 2020 postponement and a cloud of uncertainty over athlete eligibility for the Paralympics has dealt the Canadian Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team a number of unique challenges over the past year.

True to their resilience, the Canadian women rallied to overcome each obstacle and have emerged stronger and more unified—primed to return to the court to do what they do best.

Together.

“I feel like our team unity, closeness and bonding has definitely changed,” said Tara Llanes, a member of the Senior Women’s National Team since 2018. “It had already started to change after the ParaPan-Am Games in 2019. And with everything that has happened since, we’re much more of a team unit—we have each other’s back and I think everybody on the team knows that.

“That’s the sign of a really great team.”

The Canadian women punched their ticket to Tokyo in 2019 after earning a spot in the championship final at the ParaPan-Am Games in Lima. The team went on to capture gold in a critical game over the Americans.

Poised to earn their first Paralympic medal since bronze in Athens 2004, the pandemic interrupted some momentum gained from the program’s gold medal-winning performance in Lima.

“I think our team has been on this sort of upward swing since 2018,” said Llanes. “After ParaPan Ams 2019, I felt a like we were unstoppable. I felt like you could’ve put us on the court with any other team and we could win. I’m not saying that can’t happen right now but it is much more difficult without being on court and face-to-face with everybody.

“I feel though that when we get back on court, all of us together, that it’s just going to come back. I feel like we might be rough-on-court for a week or two, but I honestly think our team unity—boom right back into it.”

Getting ready to compete at the highest level is hard enough for any athlete. With the uncertainty of the rescheduled Games along with COVID-19 restrictions, the 44-year-old and her Canadian teammates were forced to adapt.

“This has been one of the most stressful years I think of my life,” said the North Vancouver, B.C., native. “The first two or three months when covid hit and I couldn’t get to a gym here in B.C .and my coach was putting me through these workouts at home where I could only push twice in my backyard. And I remember thinking ‘how is this making me a better player?’ But it made do a lot more visualization.

“When I got back on court I felt like I didn’t really lose much, in fact there was some areas where I felt like I gained. Just because you don’t have a ball and a hoop, there’s things you can still do to be a better player and I feel like our team has been focused on that. And most of our players have been on court, working so hard.

“All we could do is focus on the dates with Tokyo.”

Team Canada’s Arinn Young was no stranger to the challenges her teammates faced over the past year and has had to overcome them herself overseas.

The product of Legal, Alta. landed in Wiesbaden, Germany in September after signing her first pro contract with the Rhine River Rhinos in the top division of the German Rollstuhlbasketball Bundesliga.

Being one of the few athletes away from their country and family, I’m not going to lie, it’s hard,” said Young. “With the time change, they’ll be team meetings I can’t make because I have practice at night or it’s just too late for me. So it’s tough, I feel very out of place but this has been the best decision to come here and play.

“Everyone from family teammates and staff have been supporting me so that’s been good.”

A member of the Senior Women’s National Team since 2014, Young has issued a warning to Canada’s upcoming competition.

“We all have the same mindset, people better watch out for us,” said the 24-year-old. “We had all this bad stuff happen to us in the last year, to be able to get back on court and play, not just proving to ourselves again but to everyone, nothing can stop Team Canada. Nothing can stop the athletes who have been through a nightmare. It just makes us hungrier.

“I know there’s not much that can stop me and my sight to win a gold medal and I know it’s like that for both our programs. I feel like it’s been a blessing in disguise and we’re going to be deadly coming out of this.”