An athlete from Okotoks will be making an appearance at the Paralympic games in Paris later this month.
Paralympic athlete, and Okotoks resident, Zak Madell is part of the Canadian Wheelchair Rugby team that will be competing for Gold in Paris.
When Madell was 10 years old, he had to have his fingers and legs amputated due to a septic staph infection.
"I was a super active kid involved in sports until that point," Madell explains. "And it just made sense to get back involved in sports as soon as I was healthy too enough after my amputations."
Madell tried a couple of different sports, such as Sledge Hockey and Wheelchair Basketball, before he got recruited to play Wheelchair Rugby in 2011.
"As somebody without fingers or legs, obviously holding onto a hockey stick can be a bit of a challenge. There was a lot of duct tape involved. Maybe not the best fit for me.
Madell says that the hype around the Olympics has really helped the reality of him going to the Paralympics sink in. I then went on to try Wheelchair Basketball. Absolutely fell in love, I still play to this day, just for fun. Great way to cross-train and stay in shape."
After heading to a prospect camp for Wheelchair Rugby in Winnipeg, Madell hopped into a chair and started crashing around and fell in love with the sport.
At the age of 17, Madell made his debut with the Canadian national Wheelchair Rugby team at the 2011 Americas Zone qualification tournament.
After that, he earned a spot on the Canadian team that went to the 2012 London Paralympic Games, where he outperformed the coaching staff's expectations.
Since then, he has competed in the 2014 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Denmark, the 2014 Canada Cup International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament, the 2015 World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge, the 2016 and the 2020 Paralympic Games, three Parapan American Games where his team won one gold and two silver medals, and the 2014 and 2022 World Championships.
Madell was also named the MVP for the 2014 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Denmark, the 2014 Canada Cup International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament, and the 2015 World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge.
For the past six months, Madell has been living in Victoria so he can train for this year's Paralympic games.
"We just have access to facilities where we can get on court to train, basically whenever we want. Which is a huge luxury to have, usually tough to come by. So getting some good on-court time for training and I have a few of my national teammates out here as well."
The Team Canada Wheelchair Rugby team will head over to France on August 17th and enter the athlete's village on the 24th.
Team Canada's first game is on August 29th, and they play one game a day until September 2nd.
The games can be watched on CBC in Canada or on the Paralympic Games YouTube Page.