Paralympic athlete Cindy Ouellet flew to Japan on Thursday August 12 to participate in her fifth Paralympic Games. The athlete from Rivière-du-Loup and her teammates from the national wheelchair basketball team will try to climb one of the first three steps of the podium.
Cindy Ouellet will be in her fourth Summer Paralympic Games, she who also competed in Nordic skiing at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. The athlete will be the captain of the field training, but she sees a role rather “Symbolic” that she accepts with great humility.
“In my heart, in my head, there are 12 captains in this team. Even though I’m the one who wears the hat on the pitch, I know I’m playing with captains […] We all bring something different. This team is special, each girl contributes in her own way, ”said Cindy Ouellet during an interview last June.
While group training has not been easy this year – the athletes met for the first time in June in Toronto – expectations are high for the Canadian wheelchair basketball team in Tokyo. The squad, made up of experienced women, are among the top six teams in the world and firmly believe in their medal chances.
“We have great medal potential,” confirmed Cindy Ouellet. We had a difficult year in terms of training, but we are confident. We will leave everything on the ground there and we will see what we will be able to do. ”
“Seeing the girls again, after a year and a half, it did me a lot of good. This is my second family. I was also impatient to find a basketball court so as not only to throw a ball on a wall ”, added the one who evolves to the position of point guard.
THROUGH THE EVENTS
The last year has been strewn with pitfalls for the Louperivoise, since the pandemic forced her to train by herself, in her personal garage, over a period of several months. She never concealed that the postponement of the Games, initially planned for the summer of 2020, had also affected him on several levels. At the end of the summer last year, nothing was going well.
But the top athlete asked for help and managed to get up. Today, she speaks openly about this ordeal, and about mental health, to show that you should not hesitate to seek support.
Cindy Ouellet is also a spokesperson and speaker for Sport’Aide, an organization that works to provide a healthy sports environment for young people and which offers, in particular, a listening and support service.
“Every day I take care of myself,” said the 32-year-old athlete. I learned to listen to myself through it all. I used to go at 100 miles an hour, and I didn’t always listen to myself. Now I listen to myself a little more and take time for myself. ”
ACCOMPLISHED ATHLETE
Cindy Ouellet is the first athlete from Quebec to participate in the Paralympic Winter and Summer Games. On the international scene, she also racked up gold medals at the 2019 Parapan Am Games and the 2014 World Championships. She was also named “Female Athlete of the Year” by Wheelchair Basketball Canada three times.
Committed both in the field and outside, Cindy Ouellet is also recognized for the social and community actions that she multiplies in order to support the causes and organizations that are close to her heart. In June, she was voted “Female Sports Personality of the Decade” in Quebec at the 48th Gala Sports Quebec, nothing less.
The Summer Paralympic Games will be played from Tuesday August 24 to Sunday September 5.
