Jones, who is an eight-time Paralympian, was chosen by a vote of fellow Team USA athletes.
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Apart from archery, athletics, boccia, cycling, para canoe, equestrian, football (five-a-side, seven-a-side), goalball, judo, para-triathlon, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair rugby, which featured in the previous edition as well, canoe-kayak and triathlon will make their debut at this year’s Paralympics.
Great Britain has a target of 121 medals at the Rio Paralympics, having finished third in the medals table in London four years ago with 120 medals, 34 gold, behind tables-toppers China, and second-placed Russian Federation, none of whose athletes will take part in the 11-day sporting festival.
USA wheelchair rugby player Chuck Aoki grew up in Minneapolis idolizing Twins stars Kirby Puckett and Torii Hunter – “I couldn’t name a legit Paralympic athlete who I wanted to be like”.
And despite a rollercoaster of a year following classification changes in both sports, she says she is ready to grasp the challenge. “That enough people believed in me, my story and my legacy, it’s just a real honor”.
“That always touches me”.
“A lot of people told me I wouldn’t get back into running and I proved them wrong, I just worked hard and always told myself I could do it”.
Michelle Stilwell, Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation, and MLA for Parksville-Qualicum, will once again be competing for Team Canada in the T52 100-metre and 400-metre athletic events.
“I don’t think I’d be able to do a lot of what I do without them”.
Paralympic athletes fit that definition, and whatever their starting point, they have reached that level thanks to their passion and work ethic, just like any other achiever.
“If we go from 20th to 16th – I like round numbers, so I’d be happy with 15th – it means we are on the right track, it means that we’re going back to our place of being back on top in high performance, but also we’re taking care of who’s coming up”, she said.
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For a few nerve-wracking days last month, it sounded like that powerful human message might not get delivered.
