One of the biggest names in wheelchair rugby gets a second shot at Paralympic gold this week.
Holy Trinity Academy graduate Zak Madell leads the Canadian charge into the wheelchair rugby tournament at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio as round-robin play kicks off.
“People expect big things from our team,” Madell said. “We would love to go out and go above and beyond what we have accomplished in the past. I think this pressure is what has pushed us and encouraged us to prepare and get to this point.”
The fourth-ranked Canucks take on the host Brazil on Sept. 14 followed by a matchup with Great Britain and an anticipated showdown with the defending Paralympic gold medallists from Australia on Sept. 16.
“Looking at our recent history, the Aussies have been our toughest competition,” Madell said. “This is solidified by their first place finishes at the last Paralympics and world championships.”
The Canada-Australia battle will feature arguably the two biggest stars of the sport in Madell and four-time paralympian Ryley Batt. It’s a rematch of the 2012 London Paralympic gold medal game in which the heavily-favoured Aussies reigned supreme.
Four years later it could be a different story.
Madell was just one year into the sport in London and just scratching the surface of an unlimited potential. He’s since gone on to earn a myriad of international honours, including three MVP awards in international competition.
On home soil, Madell established himself as perhaps the face of Canada’s record-breaking performance at the 2015 Parapan Am Games in Toronto.
The 22-year-old led the red-and-white to its first gold medal at the Pan Ams in wheelchair rugby in over a decade.
For his efforts, he was named Canada’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony in the Big Smoke.
“I like to think that considering we have the majority of our team returning from 2012 that we have been able to spend the last four years building our chemistry together as a team and we are much more experienced now as a group,” Madell added.
Canada goes into Rio with something to prove after struggling in its most recent international test, the Canada Cup in British Columbia earlier this summer. Dealing with a number of injuries, the team finished out of the medals and dropped in the international rankings from first to fourth.
“I do not think that our current fourth place ranking is a very accurate indicator of how this tournament will go,” Madell said.
Canada is pooled alongside Australia, Brazil and Great Britain.
The other group features U.S., Sweden, Japan and France.
The medal games in Rio are played on Sept. 18. Live-streaming of the wheelchair rugby competition can be seen at cbc.ca.
For the latest on Canada’s wheelchair rugby team go to paralympic.ca
