– Submitted Photo
by Morinville News Staff
Wheelchair Basketball Canada and the Canadian Paralympic Committee announce the 24 athletes – 12 men and 12 women – nominated for selection to Team Canada for the Rio Paralympic Games this September.
Legal’s Arinn Young is among the dozen to join the Women’s Team for the upcoming games.
The Canadian women are the reigning world champions. They head into Rio with 10 returning players from the club that captured the world title in 2014. Canada most recently placed second on home soil at the Parapan Am Games in 2015.
“We have an excellent group of athletes, coaches and support staff who have all worked very hard to get to this point and that momentum will carry us through the last 100 days until the Games,” said Bill Johnson, head coach of the Canadian women’s team in a release May 30. “As a top-ranked team, we are confident in our ability to go head-to-head with the very best in the world as we strive for a return to the Paralympic podium in Rio.”
The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games take place Sept. 7 to 18. The wheelchair basketball competition features 10 countries competing in the women’s division. The action will start Sept. 8 when the women open the competition against Great Britain, and the men face Spain.
