YORKTON - The Summer Olympics may have officially wrapped up but that does not end medal dreams for another group of athletes busy preparing for a trip to Paris.
The 2024 edition of the Paralympic Games is set to go from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8, with Canada of course sending a major contingent of athletes.
Among Canadian participants will be Regina’s Nik Goncin as a veteran member of the men’s wheelchair basketball team.
“I’m excited for this one,” Goncin told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview.
It will be the third Paralympics for Goncin, who had an 11th place at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016, and an eighth place finish at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. This time the aspirations are bigger.
“This is going to be full on,” enthused Goncin, adding this time there will be a significant number of fans following the team to France which will enhance the experience, especially for wheelchair basketball which typically has huge crowds as a premier event.
So what will the big crowds mean?
“This will be a great spot to showcase the sport,” said Goncin.
Goncin said in the end as an athlete you have to sort of forget the crowd.
“You just go out there and do your thing,” he said.
That can be the difficult part of big event likes the Paralympics, finding a way to enjoy the experience of aspects like the opening ceremonies and life in the athlete village, and still be game ready when the whistle blows.
“You want to take it all in and still be focused,” said Goncin, adding “at the end of the day” they have the business of being athletes to take care of.
So what will it take to come out on top?
“Just the tiny, little things, that you do day in and day out,” said Goncin, adding it’s too late to implement huge changes in what the team does, so they need to just rely on the preparation and do what they have trained to do. “. . . You have to eliminate the things that can go wrong.”
This time too, Goncin said Canada goes to the games with a veteran squad that feels prepared to find its way to the podium.
This event is likely to be a little extra special for Goncin – born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- who said he is contemplating retirement of a sort, suggesting it may be his last international event.
“It could be my last. . . So I’m treating it as such,” he said.
Goncin’s wheelchair basketball journey began in 2008, when he discovered the sport through a clinic at his high school. The coach of the clinic invited Goncin out to a local practice, and he has been hooked ever since.
Goncin said it was the first wheelchair sport he tried, and he found the physicality of the game and the community associated with the sport compelling.
It wasn’t long before Goncin was representing Saskatchewan on the basketball court.
Goncin made his debut with Team Canada at the 2009 world junior championship. In 2013, he made both the senior and junior national teams.
