Celebrating the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics with Praxis Indigenous Peoples’ Liaison, Richard Peter

Praxis Indigenous Peoples’ Liaison, Richard Peter is a fierce advocate for improving health outcomes for Indigenous Canadians living with spinal cord injury. Richard is also fierce on the court having competed in wheelchair basketball and Para badminton (He’s won four Paralympic medals, including three gold in wheelchair basketball and two medals in Para badminton at the Pan-Am Games). With the start of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, we asked Richard to give us some of his insights on his favourite Para sports.

 

Tell us how you got involved in wheelchair basketball?

I got involved in wheelchair basketball when a Victoria Wheelchair sports demonstration team came to my school to introduce wheelchair basketball. I was reluctant to try it but was convinced to go check it out and the rest is history. I was hooked instantly and tried out as many Para sports that I could, with wheelchair basketball and team sports being the ones I enjoyed the most.

What do you want people to know about Para sports?

Just to give it a try once, as you never know….you might enjoy it. There are also many levels of Para sports, from the high-performance levels to the recreation levels. Hopefully the new athletes can find where they best fit and enjoy staying fit, healthy, active and possibly on the road to the Paralympics one day.

Which Paralympic sports are you most interested in watching?

Of course I’ll be cheering on both men’s and women’s basketball teams, hopefully get to watch some Para badminton and rugby. But really, I’ll watch as much as I can, and hopefully get some good coverage on TV of the Paralympics. I hope that YOU can check out some of the Paralympics games and sports and learn a little more about Para sports. Cheers to Team Canada.

Photo: Richard competing in wheelchair basketball for the Canadian National team.