Representing Canada internationally brings a ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling to the SWNT member

For Tara Llanes, the dream of competing in high-performance sport and wearing the country’s colours started at an early age. The West Covina, Calif. native was just eight years old when the 1984 Summer Olympic Games were held in nearby Los Angeles. Llanes had the opportunity to attend track and field events during the Games alongside her mother at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

“I still have the little, tiny outfit I wore when I went. Just the spectacle of it – I was this little kid, and I was just like, ‘Wow,’” Llanes recalled. “Everything about it was so amazing, watching the athletes compete and all of that. It was a big deal. I was old enough to remember. It made an absolute impression on me. It was the coolest thing to be there; it was just my mom and I, and she was so into it.”

The dream of representing Team Canada at the Paralympics first came to Llanes while she was training in wheelchair tennis following her mountain biking accident.

After a hiatus from sports, Llanes’ partner at the time signed her up for wheelchair tennis lessons in Vancouver.

“I think the first time I ever thought about the Paralympics was when I was playing tennis, and I thought maybe I could make the Canadian Paralympic Team,” she said. “I kind of just dove headfirst into it. It was sort of the first sport that I started to train for since my injury. It had been years since I had competed in anything.

“When I found tennis, I was just so determined to be good at it, and it was such a hard sport. That was the first time I thought, ‘Hey, you know, maybe I could do this’.”

On the tennis court, Llanes met wheelchair basketball athletes Richard ‘Bear’ Peter, Marni Abbott and Amanda Yan.

Bear suggested that if Llanes wanted to get faster on the tennis court, she should try wheelchair basketball.

Llanes attended the Canadian Senior Women’s National Team carding camp in 2018 and earned a roster spot.

Her first opportunity to wear the Team Canada colours came during a competition in Lyon, France.

“That was extremely special,” Llanes said. “My first tournament with our main squad would have been France in 2018. Just saying that you represent your country, and wanting to represent it in the best way possible, with not only playing well but playing well as a team and doing it together and knowing that you’re going to have people back home watching.”

In 2019, Llanes helped Canada defeat the U.S. to win gold at the Parapan American Games in Lima.

With a Paralympic spot already secured, Llanes admitted the group was confident heading into the gold medal game against the Americans.

“That was a big moment for us,” she said. “We had a really good year and knew we could do it. I think that moment was one of the most special because we played as a team.”

With the gold medal around her neck and the Canadian anthem playing, the sacrifices the athletes had made to get to the top had paid off.

“You feel a lot of pride, you feel an immense amount of pride,” Llanes said. “That’s one of the reasons we play. You work so hard to get to that point – all the hours, days, months, and years you put into it, and sacrifice you put into it. To end up with a medal around your neck and with your teammates to your left and right, that’s when I think things start to hit you a little bit.

“It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”

As Llanes and the Senior Women’s National Team prepare to head to Osaka, Japan, for the 2024 Women’s IWBF Repechage Tournament, the veteran is focused on staying in the moment.

“We have to be present. It’s this moment; it’s not yesterday, and it’s not tomorrow; we can’t worry about what happened yesterday, and we can’t look ahead,” she said. “We have to be right here in the moment with each other and that’s it.

“Feel the emotions. This is what we’ve worked so hard for. There’s nothing wrong with that. Stay focused on what we’re here to do.”

Four spots are up for grabs in Osaka for the 2024 Paralympic Games. A top-four finish for Canada will give Llanes and her teammates another opportunity to Wear The Leaf on sport’s top stage.

“Being able to represent Canada has been so special for me, just being able to be back in high-performance sport, but then to be able to represent your country on the highest stage – I don’t know how to really describe the feeling of it, it’s just special,” said Llanes.