National goalball tryouts bring aspiring Paralympians to St-Henri
Concordia University/CBC series explores stories from Montreal's St-Henri neighbourhood
Several Quebec athletes are vying for a spot on the national goalball team, which could mean a shot at competing in Rio at the 2016 Paralympics.
All six fought for their spot this part March in the national tryouts, held at St-Henri's Gadbois Recreational Centre.
Goalball was invented in 1946 as a therapeutic activity to help rehabilitate blind Second World War veterans.
The sport, which is played by blind and visually impaired athletes, was introduced to the Paralympics as a demonstration sport at the 1976 Games in Toronto. Canada has sent a team to compete in every Paralympic Games since then.
Athletes wear eyeshades to block out all residual light, and experience complete darkness while they are on the court.
Players attempt to throw a ball with bells embedded in it into the opposing goal.
They follow the ball with their ears, not their eyes. In that way, they do not need their entire body to work together in order to play goalball accurately.
The Canadian goalball team's next big tournament will be during the 2015 IBSA World Games in South Korea in May. If the team makes it to the top three, the men's and the women's teams will qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games.
''This Paralympic tournament will be an ideal opportunity to show that Canada is back,'' says Nathalie Chartrand, executive director of the Quebec Blind Sport Association.
The Canadian goalball teams have no gold medals in their trophy case, but in 2006, they took home the world championship and at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, the men's team won a silver medal.
Being part of the national team is a significant achievement, Chartrand said.
''It proves to people that 'hey, I'm blind, but I'm still representing Canada,''' she said.
The athletes selected to be part of next year's Canadian goalball team will also participate at the Parapan Am Games in Toronto this August.
The national trials held in St-Henri were one part of the team's selection process.
Athletes were evaluated at the annual goalball tournament in St-Henri in January. The athletes will also be evaluated at the Senior Nationals in Toronto in April.
Nancy Morin, Bruno Haché and Simon Tremblay, members of the provinical goalball team who were at the tryouts in St-Henri, have already been selected to represent Canada at 2015 IBSA World Games in Korea in May.
Three other members of the Quebec team —Sabrina Pilon, Josué Coudé and Cindy Morin — also took part in the national tryouts.
They will find out in May if they made next year's national team.
St-Henri Chronicles
St-Henri Chronicles is a collaboration between the Department of Journalism at Concordia University, and CBC Montreal.
Students in a graduate-level multimedia course were asked to find and produce original stories on St-Henri for their final class project.
They spent the winter term developing these stories, and experimented with sound, pictures, video, infographics and maps to tell them.