Blog

Posted by Jessica on July 5th, 2010

The last time I blogged I was on a plane with Team B.C., heading to Saskatoon for the National Wheelchair Basketball Championships. I always love playing at Nationals because those of us on the Canadian team play against each other, representing our provinces.  Sometimes this can get a little scrappy, but for the most part it’s a lot of fun.

Well, after 22 years of waiting, B.C went undefeated. We finally won the gold medal! And, I was named to the All-Star team (also a first for me).

There was little time to enjoy our victory however, because as soon as the awards were handed out, I was off to the airport again.

The glamorous life of an athlete

After spending four days playing hard at the national championships (and giving 100% effort at all times) , I hopped on a plane for a 21 hour trip to England, to do it all over again with Team Canada at British Telecom Paralympic Cup.

Even though I travel all over the world playing basketball, I really only ever see hotels and gyms. If we do get an afternoon off, for me it’s usually spent getting physio or a massage to keep my body together. It’s taping and ultrasound and icing and ibuprofen — to (hopefully) keep me going until I get a real rest (a solid three or four days of not playing — which never happens on the road).

Rivalries and Defeats

In Manchester, we (Team Canada) were up against the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands.

Everyone has teams they hate to lose to. For us, that team is Australia. A few months ago in Japan, we lost to them. Then, a few weeks ago in Georgia (U.S.A), the Netherlands thoroughly thrashed us…twice.

Nobody likes losing, but those two games against Australia and the Netherlands really rattled our team confidence.

We had something to prove in England— and prove it we did.

The Sweet Taste of Victory

Those horrible games in Georgia and Japan were forgotten in England; every single game we came out roaring.  For the first time in a long time, Team Canada was functioning as an efficient machine.

First up was the UK: we beat them by 25 points in a relaxed victory.

Next was Australia.  I’m not sure what they were expecting but it certainly wasn’t the thrashing we handed to them. Canada won by 20 points.  The third game was against the Dutch: they most likely weren’t expecting much as they had soundly beaten us only two weeks prior. This worked to our advantage and we trounced them by 20 points. We were on fire.

In the gold medal game, we once again met the Dutch. They were a little more prepared this time and we had to work a little harder, but at the end of the game it was Canada 62, Netherlands 47. We won the gold!

It was very gratifying to finally finish a tournament undefeated, and with a gold medal. This doesn’t happen very often in international sport.  And with only four weeks until the World Championships, this win was a great confidence boost (even national teams need a little lift every now and then).

We stayed and trained for another week and then it was back on the big bird home — with two gold medals in my pocket.

I might not know what day or time it is, but I do know that I had a blast over the past two weeks and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again next week, when I leave for Ottawa for two weeks of training!