This summer, Tara Llanes is hoping to win a gold medal with the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team set to compete at the 2020 Paralympic Games. But that’s just one of the big items on her to-do list.
Llanes raced mountain bikes professionally for over a decade before suffering a back injury in 2007 that paralyzed her lower extremities. After the injury, though, Llanes discovered she still wanted to fly downhill and jump 35-foot jumps. So she tracked down an adaptive bike made in Poland, and with the help of friends and fundraising she made it back on a bike and back on the mountain.
Now she wants to help get more people that have never had the opportunity to enjoy the mountains to do so by riding.
In the years since her injury, as she’s become one of Canada’s best wheelchair basketball players, Llanes has done extensive work with policy leaders to expand access on Canada’s mountain trails for individuals with cognitive, sensory and physical disabilities. She’s been instrumental in getting adaptive mountain biking added to B.C.’s Whistler Adaptive sports program.
In May, Procter and Gamble, the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee recognized her hard work by making her one of the 52 recipients (and four Canadian recipients) of the Athletes for Good Fund. The fund awards over $500,000 in grants to the charitable causes supported by Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
I spoke with Llanes about the importance of visibility for Paralympic athletes, the prominence and dominance of Canada’s wheelchair basketball program, and what messages she hopes to send to Canadians.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Sportsnet: When did being a Paralympic athlete become a goal of yours?
Tara Llanes: It wasn’t until about seven years after my accident that I not only learned more about the Paralympics but also got my competitive edge back. It was the longest I’d ever gone without that inner burning drive to compete. Once I realized I could perform on the world’s biggest stage again, I was all in. I started training my butt off and started ticking off boxes.
What should people know about the life of Paralympic athletes?
It’s hard! You are doing it for your love of the sport you compete in, to represent the best of the best for your country, and most athletes are struggling financially. We are up at 6 a.m. to do lifts, then four hours of pushing on court at 100 per cent — and that’s five days a week. Our bodies take such a toll, especially in Paralympic sport where athletes have had some sort of traumatic experience that got them in the wheelchair in the first place.
But would I trade it? Absolutely not.
How has COVID-19 impacted your training and preparation?
Being in a team sport, I wasn’t able to get on court with my teammates for 14 months. That’s more than a year of not being able to maintain that connection and non-verbal understanding of what others need from you on court. No matter how hard I train and push myself to be better, nothing can replace that energy and learning experience.
With that said, there were also things that I was able to work on because I couldn’t get on court for months. I needed to work on my hand speed while pushing, and had COVID-19 not happened, I don’t know if I would’ve worked on this. So I do see some silver linings here as well.
What is your history with the game of basketball?
I grew up playing stand-up basketball and was part of a national championship-winning team, so I feel that this sport is in my veins. However, after high school I started racing mountain bikes professionally and lived my dream of racing all around the world until 2007. Then I crashed while racing in Vail, Colo., and broke my neck and back.
It took years for me to find my identity and when I finally did, it led me back to basketball. I trained extensively in B.C. to prepare for the National Team selection camp in 2018. I made the team and played my first World Championships for Team Canada that same year. We continued to bond as a team and in 2019 won gold at the Parapan Am Games. This team is special and feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of.
We often talk about the rise of basketball in Canada. Does that rise include wheelchair basketball?
Both the women’s and men’s programs in wheelchair basketball have been leaders in this sport for quite some time. The Canadian Women’s National Team is amongst the most successful teams in the entire history of Canadian amateur sport — the only team to win three Paralympic gold medals in a row (1992, 1996 and 2000) and four World Championships in a row (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006).
The Canadian Men’s National Team also has three gold medals at the Paralympic Games (2000, 2004 and 2012) and a gold medal at the 2006 World Championships.
Canada has had some growing pains as other countries caught up, but the current teams are a force to be reckoned with.
What would be the tangible benefits of having more visibility of Paralympic athletes in the mainstream media?
More visibility gives Paralympic athletes an opportunity to tell their stories. How did they get there? What sort of uphill battle did they have to climb emotionally, mentally and, of course, physically?
How did they make it out of that hospital and through physical therapy just to get back home? How did they create a new routine? How did they believe in themselves enough and pushed through to get to the Paralympics?
We are resilient and diverse beings, and I believe these stories just need to be told at the highest stage in sport.
What does success look like for Canada’s Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team?
Most on the team would say a gold medal. Of course, that is the ultimate goal. You don’t get up and grind every single day to not have that outcome. There can only be one winner, and Canada wants to bring that gold home.
But I think since 2019 we have become so much more bonded as players and friends that it is now deeper than just winning gold. Personally, I love the journey itself, and I think some of that comes with age and the fact that I was a professional mountain biker before my spinal cord injury. I don’t want to take any second of this experience for granted.
What charitable cause are you hoping to use your platform to support?
I’m supporting Whistler Adaptive. They provide individuals with disabilities access to one of the world’s best mountain resorts, as well as the environment, support and opportunity to become physically active and focus on their abilities rather than disabilities.
When I first learned about Whistler Adaptive and their amazing work in the adaptive sports arena, I was determined to work with them and help them get three-wheeled adaptive mountain bikes added to their sports programming. This helps people with disabilities to enjoy the sport, the outdoors and reconnect with their friends and family on the trails.
If there is one thing you want people to take away from your story, what would it be?
Be grateful for the life lessons, and let them follow you through life in a positive way.
My athletic career has taught me the importance of discipline, love, respect and empathy, which I take with me every time I get on the court with Team Canada and in my work to grow access to adaptive sports. My desire to help others stems much more from my life as a chair user than from my athletic career.
And I have to say, I appreciate Procter & Gamble recognizing athletes stepping up to make a difference in their short film Your Goodness is Your Greatness — we all have a story that fuels how we give back. The true measure of greatness is goodness.
