Meet boccia player Marco Dispaltro, the 'Gordie Howe' of wheelchair sports
Sport gave Montreal native new lease on his sporting life
Marco Dispaltro is full of it.
The wheelchair Paralympian is full of enthusiasm, inspiration and experience. He has inspired many in his 23 years as a para-athlete and will continue to inspire.
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When you meet Dispaltro, it's easy to reason why the 48-year-old boccia guru is a sought-after motivational speaker. He has lived his mantra: We are not born champions, we become champions.
"Damn right I love what I'm doing," said Dispaltro, who made the transition from wheelchair rugby to Boccia in 2010. "For me, not knowing my place in the world when I was younger...to travel and to compete around the world and to be able to continue to do this at 48 is something else.
"Boccia gave me a chance to spread my wings. I don't want to ever quit."
Dispaltro began his wheelchair athletic career in 1993 as a rugby player and competed until 2004. From 2001 until 2008 he was the Canadian national rugby team's high performance coordinator.
When Dispaltro was named Canada's flag-bearer for the Parapan Games in Toronto last summer, he called himself the Gordie Howe of wheelchair sports. The label fits.
'I didn't know my place in the world'
The native of Montreal fell in love with sports when he was a kid, watching Paul Henderson and Team Canada's comeback to win in the 1972 Summit Series.
But no matter what sport Dispaltro attempted, he struggled.
"I always loved sports as a kid," he said. "I was crappy at everything because of my muscular dystrophy. I didn't know when I was younger because I wasn't diagnosed until I was 13. But I still loved it."
"I was a master at falling down. In my life I must have fallen down 2,000 to 3,000 times. But I always got back up. I didn't care. I loved sports. I loved running. I couldn't run very far, but I would just pick myself up and continue on."
Dispaltro tried speed skating, cross-country skiing, hockey, alpine skiing and many other sports. But once he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, the shy, introverted Dispaltro became a new person because he had discovered a new universe.
"I didn't know my place in the world," he said. "Wheelchair sports gave me a kick in the keister. I love what I do. It's easy to talk about something that you love to do."
Through sports, Dispaltro has enjoyed the opportunity to travel the world and meet people with different disabilities. He makes sure to take time to listen to their stories about how they overcame their predicaments.
When he gets sluggish or down about life, he remembers some of these people he met and all the young people he has mentored.
"It gives me a spring in my, well not my step, maybe a spring in my wheels," he said.
New sport, new opportunities
Discovering boccia in 2010 also has given him a new lease on his sporting life. But when he first observed the sport in action, he thought there was no way he could play a gentlemen's game.
After all, he was arriving on the scene from the rough-and-tumble world of wheelchair rugby. He couldn't talk trash anymore; he had to adhere to the sportsmanship and etiquette of the game.
"Coming from wheelchair rugby to a gentleman's game, there was quite an adjustment," Dispaltro said. "I couldn't hit anyone, couldn't swear at anyone."
"My initial thought was I couldn't play this. But I gave it chance and felt like a kid again. It was love at first throw."
Dispaltro was told when he started competing in boccia that he might be competitive in three or four years. But he had a faster path to success in mind.
He won the 2010 nationals after just a few months of breaking into the sport.
"I thought to myself, 'I'll show you. In a couple months I'll be beating you,'" Dispaltro said.
Boccia is a bowling game similar to bocce, in which players must throw or roll their coloured balls as close as possible to a white target ball, called the jack, with the winner being the player or team with the most balls near the jack.
Dispaltro likes the sport because it combines the individual aspect of singles and teamwork of pairs.
In London at the 2012 Paralympics, he won a bronze medal in the pairs with Josh Vander Vies and silver with Alison Levine in the mixed pairs at the Parapan Games last summer.
He was disappointed that the Parapan Am Games in Toronto didn't get more exposure to introduce young wheelchair athletes to the various sporting opportunities, but he knows better results in Rio can only help the cause.
"You're not in wheelchair sports to get rich," he said. "It's because you love it and you want wheelchair sports to get exposure.
"I'm really hoping the Rio Games will be boon for the Canadian team and get more exposure to get other kids who might not know that these opportunities exist.
"It's been incredible for me."
With Rio possibly his final Paralympics, what are Dispaltro's expectations?
"I'm Marco Dispaltro and I'm a podium guy," he said. "I want to be on the podium. That gold medal is well within my reach and hopefully everything will mesh."
"I don't know if this will be my last Games. I want to continue to leave a solid wheel print and a gold medal would be icing on the cake."