Paralympic gold the next target, says co-captain of Paris 2024-qualified wheelchair rugby team

By William Bailey

Patrice Dagenais and the Canadian wheelchair rugby team dominated their competition by no less than 15 points in four consecutive victories to secure a place in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games at the final qualification tournament.

In pursuit of one of the three available Paralympics berth at the Mar. 20-24 event, Canada beat Brazil 57-39, Netherlands 55-35 and host New Zealand 54-39 in the preliminary round to earn a chance to book their ticket to Paris in a semi-final against Germany.

“We needed to win that game to qualify, and we played a solid game,” co-captain Dagenais says of the match Team Canada won by a comfortable 58-41 margin. “There was a lot of pressure involved in that one, but we stuck to the game plan and were eventually able to get a good lead in the second half and got the victory.

“It was nice to have that feeling that we qualified for Paris.”

Though both teams had already guaranteed their spots at the Paralympics, Canada took on Australia in the tournament final. The Canadians wound up falling 49-48 in overtime to the winners of the past two biggest global championships – the 2023 World Cup and 2022 World Championships.

“We already had qualified, so it was more about proving to ourselves that we can compete against one of the best teams in the world,” Dagenais recounts. “We were actually down by a couple of points two occasions in the game, but we came back to tie it up and even took the lead at some points. We ended up losing in overtime by one point, but it just showed that we could compete with the best in the world, so it’s promising for the Paris Paralympics.”

The Canadians were strong favourites to earn one of the remaining Paralympic berths at the qualifiers. They’d missed their first chance to qualify for Paris with a defeat to USA in the 2023 Parapan American Games final, but they’d shown they were certainly among the planet’s best at the 2023 World Cup, where they beat Australia and reigning Paralympic-champion Great Britain in the preliminary round.

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“We’re a strong team,” 39-year-old Dagenais signals. “The last couple of years we’ve been pretty successful, being able to beat pretty much all the teams in the world at least once. So we have a lot of confidence, and we have some experience on the team.

“Some of the teams in New Zealand were maybe a little weaker than we are. But you never know in sports. You still have to get ready like you would play any other team.”

The Canadians’ next big event on the road to Paris will be the June 6-9 Canada Cup in Richmond, B.C. Dagenais says Team Canada will use that as an opportunity to experience more high-level competition and scout some of their top rivals in advance of the Paralympics, which will have many possible podium contenders.

“It’s not just one team that’s dominant,” underlines the three-time Paralympian and London 2012 silver medallist. “It’s a strong field of eight teams, but especially the top six.”

There are still several months before the Paralympics, but Dagenais has full confidence that Team Canada will certainly be in the running for the gold medal come the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Games.

“We know we can accomplish that, but we also know it’s not gonna be easy,” indicates the Ottawa Stingers wheelchair rugby club player/president from Embrun.

“What we’ve been working on recently is more the mental part of the game – getting ourselves ready to compete in high-pressure situations,” he adds. “That’s something that we felt was a bit of a weakness in the last two events we had before the qualifiers, so it’s a personal goal for all the athletes and also as a team, and I think we can keep working on the mental skills of the game.

“We have a lot of good team chemistry and experience on our club, but at the same time we know it’s going to be very close, maybe a lot of one-point matches at the Games. We know we are qualified to win the gold medal and are willing to give it our all.”