April 6, 2018. Late afternoon. Rural Saskatchewan.
The Humboldt Broncos ice hockey team departs town for a playoff game vs nearby Nipawin. Rolling down Highway 35.
Then, suddenly, without warning, a desperate squeal of brakes, a terrifying, horrific collision. The bus collides violently with a massive semi-trailer that ploughs through a stop sign.
In that split second, 16 team members, players, coaches and support staff, lose their lives. The remaining 13 on board are badly injured. The incident tragic, utterly heartbreaking. For every sport and for every parent, a worst nightmare.
The hockey world, indeed all of Canada, mourns deeply.
Days, months, then years slip agonizingly by. Each crash survivor, while bolstered by friends and family, faces no choice but to get on with life.
One of them is Jacob Wassermann.
Wassermann, a highly promising goalie for the Broncos, suffers a serious brain injury, two collapsed lungs, and a spinal cord injury that leaves him paralyzed from the waist down.
Shattered but undeterred, tenacious, drawing on bags of courage, and unleashing his competitive spirit, upon recovery he makes a return to the world of sport. And eventually finds himself, after initial attempts at adaptive water skiing and para hockey, at the Saskatoon Rowing Club.
A remarkable story quickly unfolds.
Certainly, the learning curve is steep. Wassermann faces significant challenges, the PR 1 category, for athletes with no or limited trunk movement, littered with experienced oarsmen from around the globe.
Nonetheless, he sets his sights on qualifying for the Paralympic Games. A methodical, multi year plan, aiming specifically for Los Angeles, 2028.
Incredibly, in what is really a first season on the international racing circuit, Wassermann claims a silver medal at an important March 2024 regatta in Rio de Janeiro. Well ahead of schedule, just 24 years old and new to the sport, he qualifies for the Paris Olympics as Canada’s lone Para rower.
Of course, Paris requires a crash course in preparation. Less than six months to get ready. So much to learn. Waiting will be the best rowers in the world, highly capable and battle tested.
In the end, Wassermann races three times over a three-day period. The youngest competitor in the field, dogged by some indifferent starts on the 2000m course at the Nautical stadium east of the city, he places 10th overall.
Regardless, I take great joy in watching him race. Applaud his determination, grit, and positivity. Certain of the growth and improvements he is sure to make. An unexpected Paralympic debut, full of difficulties and adjustments, yet an important building block for the future.
Most of all, aware of his life story, it is motivating to watch him battle adversity, magnificent to see him perform so bravely and splendidly despite severe physical setbacks.
In this regard, for me at least, the Paris Paralympic Games prove to be absolutely spectacular and memorable. Leaving Wassermann aside for just a minute, thousands of other athletes, representing 169 nations, turn in countless stunning, spellbinding performances.
Everywhere, on display is outrageous skill, bravery and desire, mixed in with bucket loads of joy, humour and respect. The vibe at all the venues intoxicating. Sheer sporting excellence on multiple fronts, full of breathtaking drama, electrifying victories, heartbreaking defeats. Backdrops of fireworks, laser beams, and some 3 million delirious supporters.
How else to account for the absolute brilliance of blind sprinters, of blind soccer players, of wheelchair basketball, rugby, and tennis players? Of so many others, in so many other disciplines?
Don’t believe me? Watch for yourself. Note the accomplishments of Catherine Debrunner, Gabriel Araujo, Ezra Frech, Zakia Khudadadi, Omara Elias, to name just a few. A Swiss, a Brazilian, an American, an Afghan and a Cuban. They may not yet be household names, but they should be.
Not surprisingly, the recent Paralympics closing ceremony brings two weeks of absolute magic to a superb close. Music, dancing, the athletes’ parade. A scintillating solo rendition of La Marseillaise by disabled trumpeter Andre Feydy.
Then come additional remarks from Monsieur Estanguet, the Games chief organizer. A three-time Olympic gold medalist himself, he champions “inclusion, a Paralympic revolution, an extraordinary encounter that leaves a permanent mark.”
Count me among the converted. Like so many, I hope and pray for action, for increased funding, for ever growing acceptance, for new attitudes to sport and disability.
And so, back to Wassermann. If the horrors of the 2018 bus crash forever haunt him, may he take solace in all he has already done and will no doubt soon accomplish. May the upcoming years provide multiple regattas to help him develop, hone his craft, represent his country with distinction. Without question, able bodied athletes will be given a myriad of opportunities to compete, gain confidence, savour success. May he, and other disabled performers, benefit equally.
And if, for whatever reason, the opportunities do not occur as they might, if the Paralympic movement stalls, I will still search for Wassermann four years from now. Confident, that in 2028, he will be LA bound.
Because, from his perspective, and for millions of others, there is no turning back.
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