Parapan Am Games deserve respect - Guelph Mercury
Those who think the Parapan Am Games are just an afterthought to the Pan American Games have obviously never watched a game of goalball. It has been likened to a cross between dodge ball and soccer, where all the players are blindfolded. Developed in 1946 to help in the rehabilitation of Second World War veterans whose sight had been damaged, it's bound to be one of the most attractive spectator sports at the Toronto Parapan Am Games, which began Friday. And that's fitting, since the world was introduced to goalball at the Paralympic Game in Toronto in 1976. In the afterglow of the hugely successful — and for Canadians, the extremely medal rich — 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games, we should never... Among the highly skilled and gifted para-athletes are two with ties to Guelph: Speed River Track and Field Club sprinter Leah Robinson, and wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy. Canada is clearly signalling these Games are consequential by mounting the largest Parapan Am Games to date, with 1,600 para-athletes from 28 countries competing in 15 sports, and we're fielding our largest team as well: a stellar 216 athletes, up... Source: www.guelphmercury.com
