Six Maritimers set to represent Canada at 2024 Paris Paralympics

First at Five – Paralympic Pride First at five we highlight the Maritime athletes headed to the Paralympics in Paris.

After a record-breaking showing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Maritime Paralympians are eager to keep that trend going when the 2024 Paris Paralympics get underway on Aug. 28.

Of the 126 athletes bound for the games, six hail from the Maritimes. Five of the athletes call New Brunswick home, while the other was born on Prince Edward Island. There are no Paralympians from Nova Scotia heading to the games.

Being the lone athlete set to represent Prince Edward Island, women’s goalball captain Amy Burk is eager for what will be her fifth Paralympic Games. The Charlottetown native now calls Ottawa home, but she has not forgotten where she comes from.

“It's one thing I always made sure people knew,” said Burk. “Being the only athlete (from P.E.I.) to me it's just a lot of pride I get for representing the country and as well as the Island.”

Goalball is played on an indoor volleyball court and is a sport for the visually impaired. All players wear blacked out eye covers to level the playing field, with athletes attempting to roll a ball slightly larger than a basketball into the net for a goal. The team at the end of the two 12 minute halves wins the game. The ball has a bell inside the help athletes know where it is, with Burk saying some women can roll the ball as fast as 65 km/h.

Despite being born with albinism, resulting in visual impairment, Burk excelled in the sport since she first began at 12 years old. At the 2023 Parapan American Games in Chile, she captained the national team to a gold medal.

She says that experience, along with a COVID-impacted Tokyo Games three years ago, have her more excited than ever to compete on the world’s biggest stage.

“My husband and my two boys are coming to watch, and this will be the first time that they get to see me compete internationally,” said Burk. “I'm really looking forward to sharing this moment and making memories with them.”

New Brunswick athletes

Of the five New Brunswickers set to dawn the red and white overseas, the athlete with perhaps the highest expectation is Moncton swimmer Danielle Dorris.

The soon to be 22-year-old took home a gold and silver medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, and dominated at the 2023 Para World Swimming Championships taking home four medals, three of which were gold.

In Paris Dorris will compete in the 200m individual medley S7, and the 50m butterfly S7. The latter of the two is where Dorris is the reigning Paralympic champion.

“There's a little bit of pressure going in to perform just as well as you did last time to defend that title,” said Dorris. “I think for me I try to ignore that pressure and just go in hoping for a best time. A best time would be a world record so that would come with a medal as well.”

Dorris was born with a condition known as bilateral radial dysplasia, but that hasn’t slowed her down in becoming one the world’s top swimmers.

With her first Paralympic experience coming in Rio at only 13 years of age, and the Tokyo Games being impacted by the pandemic, Dorris is looking forward to what she sees as her first real Paralympic experience.

Getting to represent Moncton and her home province hasn’t been lost on her.

“New Brunswick being one of the smaller provinces in Canada, I think it's pretty special that I can be one of those athletes putting us on the map,” said Dorris. “This year we have five athletes from New Brunswick who's all competing, and I think that's one of the biggest numbers we've ever had coming out of New Brunswick to go to the Paralympic Games which is very exciting.”

Two of the New Brunswickers joining Dorris in Paris will be competing in wheelchair basketball.

On the women’s side, Eel River Bar First Nation’s Desiree Isaac-Pictou will be making her Paralympic debut but she is no stranger to the national team. Just last year the 24-year-old helped Canada to a silver medal at the Parapan Am Games.

Isaac-Pictou is still relatively new to the sport, being introduced to it in 2020 after a vehicle derailed in a mud bog race near her First Nation striking her resulting in multiple fractures and two leg amputations.

On the men’s side, it will be Rothesay's Colin Higgins second time competing on the world’s biggest stage. Higgins joined the wheelchair basketball circuit in 2014, and has quickly grown into Canada’s most deadly scorers.

“I know there's a bit of a buzz back at home,” Higgins said leading up the games with a New Brunswicker on both the men’s and women’s team. “The more representation we have it allows the young ones to kind of dream and the exposure hopefully just it brings a little more education and knowledge to it all and just helps it grow and continue to grow.”

Like any athlete who makes it to this stage, Higgins didn’t do so all by himself and credits friends, family, and coaches for supporting him over the years.

“A lot of people help you out along the way,” said Higgins. “I've been doing this a long time now so there's been a lot of sacrifices and to be able to share that with some of those people here, but also at home too it’ll be special.”

Also representing New Brunswick in Paris is Quispamsis, N.B., cyclist Alexandre Hayward. The 27-year-old already has some hardware under his belt from the 2024 season. Hayward broke his neck in 2012 at age 16 while playing hockey, and while he can still use all four of his limbs he is impaired.

Rounding out the New Brunswick quintet is Dieppe, N.B., triathlete Kamylle Frenette. It will be Frenette’s second Paralympic Games following her debut in Tokyo. She was born with a club foot, resulting in her right foot being two sizes smaller than her left reducing mobility in her ankle. That hasn’t stopped Frenette from competing, which began at a young age after being inspired by her father.

The 2024 Paris Paralympics run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.