Getting Fit is Fun

By Matthew Nause

Under a brilliant spring sun, two youngster, their faces radiating eagerness to get going, toss aside their jackets and speed off down the track at Ottawa’s Terry Fox Athletic Facility. Both are as comfortable on the track as Wayne Gretzky is on ice. Both are in wheelchairs.

Seventeen-year-old Jamie Eddie and 16-year-old James Baker have been competing in wheelchair sports for just over a year and both say they owe a lot to the joys of competition. “This is most of my life right now,” says James, “and I’m going to do it until I can’t do it anymore. It’s a great way to stay in shape.” “Besides being a good way to spend my time,” adds Jamie, “I like to travel and this is a good way to go.”

James and Jamie are junior members of the Paramquad Track and Field Club and train together with coach Rhonda Nishio. Their international experience began last December in Miami at the Junior World Games where James was first and Jamie second in each of the four events they entered. The two returned to Florida in April to take part in the Tampa Sunshine Wheelchair Games.

As the weather at home improves, James and Jamie are training hard for two of the biggest entry-level events held in Canada – the Nabob Challenge and the Canadian Track and Field Association (CTFA) Challenge Program.

“The Nabob Challenge takes place on June 2 in centres all across the country,” says Scott Ogilvie, track and field director of the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association. “The idea is to showcase both junior athletes and track and field. We want to introduce track and field to potential athletes and show them what the sport has to offer.”

Ogilvie stresses that the Challenge is an entry-level competition. “ Participation may be purely recreational, but it’s all beneficial and it may develop into competitive involvement afterwards.”

The CTFA Challenge Program is another attractive developmental competition. Designed as a series of qualifying meets which are staged throughout the summer, each will consist of three events in the open paraplegic and open quadraplegic categories: the women’s 800m, the men’s 1500m and the men’s discus. Participants must enter a minimum of two competitions. Their two best results are then tabulated in order to decide the finalists who will compete in the final meet early in August.

James and Jamie reflect the benefits of the rapid growth that is taking place in wheelchair sports. Both are good examples, of what participation has to offer, whether the activity is recreational or competitive.

Jamie, who has spina bifida, has been a paraplegic since birth. He became interested in track and field through friends he met while playing another sport. “I was playing sledge hockey,” he says, “and some of the guys were involved in wheelchair sports and got me interested.”

James, who suffered a spinal cord injury as a young child, heard about wheelchair sports from his physiotherapist. His first meet was a regional event that is held annually throughout Ontario.

“The Regional Games are a chance for kids to come out once a year,” says Rhonda Nishio. “There’s no training and it’s open to everyone. Then if they’re interested, there are programs for them to get involved in wheelchair sports.” That’s what happened to James. “He just showed up one Saturday morning,” says Nishio “and he’s never looked back.”

Nishio says that athletic activity helps improve self-esteem. But, she adds, that is something that sports and competition do for all athletes. “In the case of wheelchair athletes, I suspect it may be to an even greater degree.”

Lasting friendships are another benefit. “Jamie and I do everything together,” says James. “We train four or five times a week and go to the same competitions.”

James insists that there is no rivalry, not even a friendly one, between himself and Jamie. “It’s all for the sake of recreation. We don’t think about it. We just enjoy the competition and have fun.”

Nishio says that both James and Jamie have developed so well that they qualified for the national championships last year and are now shooting for spots on a Canadian developmental team that’s headed overseas. But, she points out, competition’s not for everyone. “If a person just wants to come out and participate recreationally, we have room for them too! Getting involved is as easy as contacting your provincial wheelchair association.”