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Newsletter By Adam Beauchemin, Jackson Starr, Dan Plouffe & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
For the second game in a row, Canada’s goalball match was all about defence. The Canadians tied South Korea 0-0 to close out the preliminary rounds and secure the second position in their group.
Canada lost their previous match to Japan in a close 2-1 outing that was decided by a goal in the final minutes of play, on the heels of a 10-0 opening win over France.
Heading into the game, the Canadians were anticipating yet another evenly matched defensive battle and that proved to be the case as both teams successfully kept the opponents out of their net.
“Our number one goal is always defence,” Ottawa’s Emma Reinke said in an interview with Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Adam Beauchemin. “It’s pretty rare now to have a 0-0 game, so I would say that we did pretty alright.”
Reinke represented Canada at the Tokyo Paralympics where the Canadians failed to advance to the knockout stage and finished in ninth place. Reinke told Sports Pages reporter Jackson Starr before the Games that she had been hoping for a different outcome this time around.
As Reinke noted, the Canadians left Tokyo with a mission of improving their defence, which has been paying dividends for the team. While Canada finished Tokyo with a 1-3 record and let in 15 goals across four games, this time around, the Canadians are sitting with a 1-1-1 record and have only allowed two goals against Japan.
“All the work that we’ve done in the last three years since Tokyo has been paying off so far, because the biggest thing that we’ve been working on is defence and game plans,” says the 26-year-old. “Defence is the thing that wins games, right? So that’s the most important thing. And it’s really cool to see it all click right at the moment that we needed to.”
The trio of Ottawa stars — Reinke, Whitney Bogart, and Amy Burk — started the match together and played nearly the entire game, with only Burk subbing out in the final six minutes of action.
With their tie today, the squad finished the preliminary round with a 1-1-1 record and will be entering the knockout stage in second place for their group. Reinke said she couldn’t hope for a better showing from her team so far.
“I don’t think we could ask for a better performance,” she indicated. “The defence is the best thing and we’ve been doing it, so we’re super happy now.”
While defence has been key to the team’s success, Reinke has also put up an impressive offensive effort leading the team with seven goals in three games — one fewer than the eight goals she collected to lead the team across four games in her debut Paralympics in Tokyo.
“I just throw the ball and hope for the best — I’m just chucking, really,” she said. “I just hope that it gets in a good spot — that’s all I can hope for.”
The Canadians will be facing new competition in the knockout stage, which presents a new set of obstacles for the team.
The Canadians will be facing off with Israel, who are 1-2 in the tournament, in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday. A win in their next match would advance the Canadians to the semi-finals and guarantee them a shot at a podium finish.
“The pool that we were in is a lot different from the pool that we’re about to cross over into. We were in a really defensive pool with the Asian countries, and now we’re getting into a little bit more of an offensive couple of games,” Reinke noted. “So the games are definitely going to be different, but if we can just keep doing what we do, then we should be OK.”
Reinke has become Canada’s key offensive weapon and is a big reason why her team managed to secure a ticket to Paris in upset fashion through the 2023 Parapan Am Games.
Reinke took up goalball in Grade 9 gym class at W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind in Brantford, ON, which is about an hour east of her hometown of St. Thomas. She joined Burk and Bogart in Ottawa in the lead-up to the last Paralympics.
”I moved to Ottawa so I could play with them and learn from them,” notes Reinke, who studies at Carleton University when her goalball schedule is lighter. “Important to my development on and off court, mentally, physically, having people who have been there to tell me what to expect – they’re big.
“They’re both big mentors of mine, and big inspirations. I look up to them both very much.”
You can read Starr’s full pre-Games profile on Reinke here.
Dagenais & Canada defeat Denmark for a spot in 5th place wheelchair rugby game
Canada defeated Denmark 56-46 in today’s match to advance to the fifth-place classification final in the wheelchair rugby competition.
Co-captained by Ottawa Stingers player Patrice Dagenais, the Canadians pulled ahead of the Danes early on and marched on to earn a 10-point victory on the day, finishing every period with a significant lead.
Canada aggressively swarmed Denmark to take control of the match — they forced the Danes to commit six turnovers and wracked up an additional four steals on the day.
Four-time Paralympian Dagenais pitched in with 10:37 of playtime. The 39-year-old from Embrun came into the tournament with hopes of medaling for the first time since 2012, when he earned a silver medal in London.
While a podium finish is now out of reach, the Canadians will be looking to win the fifth place spot in the tournament, which would be Dagenais’s fourth top-five finish at the Paralympics.
Canada’s fifth-place contest will be a rematch of the Tokyo Games. They’ll once again be battling France, whom they beat in the fifth-place final three years ago.
The atmosphere for wheelchair rugby has been electric in Paris, and facing the host French side promises to offer a fun finish.
“Wheelchair rugby is definitely a hot ticket,” Dagenais told Beauchemin after his team’s win over Germany. “We have thousands of people in the crowd cheering us on from different countries. It’s just loud, so it just makes for an awesome atmosphere.”
Dagenais will be the lone Ottawa Paralympian in action tomorrow.
Ottawa Paralympians in action on September 2:
Capital’s Canadian Paralympic team connections abound
With a lighter schedule for Ottawa’s Paralympians tomorrow, we’ll seize the moment to tell you a bit about some more of our capital connections to the Canadian Paralympic team.
While we’ve tried to focus our Ottawa at the Paralympics coverage on eight athletes who are from Ottawa or train in Ottawa, there are are also a number of Canadian Paralympic team members from the larger national capital region in Paris, and several more who have past Ottawa associations.
Anne Fergusson and Jolan Wong are among Canada’s top medal contenders at the 2024 Games as members of the Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team.
Fergusson is a 27-year-old Carleton Place resident who is midway through law school at the University of Ottawa, while Wong is a 34-year-old mother of two lives in Pembroke and serves as the team’s libero.
Both are three-time Paralympians and won a silver medal at the 2022 world championships. Canada was the top-ranked team entering the Paris Games and so far are 1-1 with a 3-0 win over Slovenia and a 3-1 loss to Brazil.
Para judoka Priscilla Gagné splits her time between Ottawa and Montreal, where she trains at Judo Canada’s national training centre. Born in Granby, QC and raised in Sarnia, ON, Gagné’s journey to her first Paralympics in 2016 included time at Ottawa’s Takahashi Dojo. The three-time Paralympian was Canada’s Opening Ceremonies flag bearer at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.
Deep River’s Kyle Tremblay is set to make his Paralympic debut in para archery. The 33-year-old qualified for Paris 2024 by hitting the bullseye in a shoot-off to win the bronze medal at the Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Games.
Para swimmer Alec Elliott’s Canadian Paralympic Committee biography lists Ottawa as his residence. The Université Laval Rouge et Or swimmer from Kitchener noted in an interview with CBC Ottawa’s Robyn Bresnahan that his recently-married brother lives in Ottawa and will be in Paris to start his honeymoon at the Games with his new bride.
And University of Ottawa medical school grad Julia Hanes will be making her Paralympic debut in the F33 women’s shotput. The 29-year-old from Lasalle, ON is now a resident doctor in Vancouver and holds Canadian records in shotput, discus and javelin.
Several Ottawa coaches are also national team coaches in Paris, including Paul ApSimon and Joel Hazzan, who act as day-to-day coaches for Ottawa Paralympians Trinity Lowthian and Brianna Hennessy respectively.
With numerous national sports organizations based in Ottawa, including the CPC’s head office, there are also many members of the Canadian Paralympic team delegation who have Ottawa connections.
At the head is eight-time Paralympic medallist Karolina Wisniewska, who is serving as Canada’s co-chef de mission at the Paris Games. Wisniewska lived in Ottawa for a decade before recently moving to Montreal to the national manager for Game Plan (which helps Canada’s Olympians and Paralympians transition to post-athletic careers).
“The support staff at a Paralympic Games is so important,” Wisniewska said in a CPC media release along co-chef de mission Josh Vander Vies. “The Paralympic Games is the pinnacle of an athlete’s career, and we are proud of the way this team is able to focus on their competition and embrace the Games experience knowing they have a full team behind them to ensure they have everything they need.
“The entire support staff is filled with remarkable individuals who bring their own expertise, hard work, and passion, combining into one amazing Canadian Paralympic Team.”
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