Okotoks wheelchair rugby star Zak Madell honoured to compete in fourth Paralympics

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Zak Madell is dressed in Lululemon best for the big ball.

So, too, are his Canadian wheelchair rugby teammates, all hoping to pull off a magical run at the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris.

“We’re going in knowing we’re a bit of an underdog this time around,” said Madell, an Okotoks product and one of the world’s top wheelchair rugby stars.

“I believe we’re number five in the world right now, which is a great spot to me, because there’s not too many expectations,” continued Madell. “It’s a good spot to hopefully upset some of the top teams and get a bit of a Cinderella story out of it.”

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It’s the hope — really — of all Canadians at the Paralympics, which begin Wednesday and run through Sept. 8.

It’s their time to shine on the world stage.

Included are a handful of locals — two-time medal-winning para-triathlete Stefan Daniel, 2012 gold-medallist wheelchair basketball star Chad Jassman, 2016 bronze-medallist para-cyclist Michael Sametz and world silver-medallist para-long-jumper Noah Vucsics.

All join Madell in carrying the Calgary and area banner to Paris.

“It’s just an honour really any time we get the chance to put on that Maple Leaf,” said the 30-year-old Madell, himself Edmonton-born but raised in Calgary and then in Okotoks. “It reminds us that we’re doing this for more than ourselves. We’re doing it for our family and our friends back home and our teammates who have put the work in and the other members of the community that might not have been able to make this team.

“We know they’re back home cheering us on and supporting us. And so we’re just making sure that we do everything we can to not have any regrets at the end of it and trying to make our country proud.”

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For Madell, that means playing the way he usually does, including at the three previous Paralympics.

He simply leaves it all out there, bringing a fiery brand of rugby — and big energy — to the floor.

“I have been around for a minute now, so I guess I’m becoming a bit of a salty old vet,” said Madell, with a chuckle. “These are Games number four for me. A lot of our athletes have been sticking around since my first Paralympics in 2012 London. So a lot of my mentors are still on the team who have five and six Paralympic Games. And so I’m kind of in a cool situation, I think, where I can relate to the old salty vets because I’ve been around doing it with them for a while but I’m also still young enough to relate with some of the newer up-and-comers and the rookies and hopefully approachable enough that I can take them under my wing and help them take their game to the next level.”

There may be no better wheelchair rugby star to be a mentor these days.

At the 2023 Parapan American Games, Madell was second in tournament scoring with 136 tries — for a 19.4 average per game — as Canada won the silver medal.

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Then earlier this year, he was a force once again as the Canadians took silver at the last-chance Paralympic Games qualifier to book their ticket to Paris.

“Wheelchair rugby approached me kind of through the basketball community,” said Madell, recalling his rise in the sport despite his love of wheelchair basketball. “A couple athletes that were involved in both basketball and rugby just mentioned that I should come and try some rugby.”

He did at age 16 in February 2011 at a prospect camp in Winnipeg, where he played in tournament games after just a few practices.

And with that, he caught the eye of the national wheelchair rugby team coach, who eventually coaxed him into making the shift from basketball and joining Canada at the 2012 London Paralympics.

“I wasn’t quite ready to make the decision whether I was a rugby player or not,” admitted Madell. “But that was a pretty tough offer to shy away from, and so from that point on, I kind of shifted gears and switched my focus over to rugby.”

When he was 10, Madell lost his fingers and legs to a septic staph infection suffered during a trip to the family cabin south of Calgary.

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But that didn’t stop him from becoming a world-class sporting star.

“Sport was a huge part of my life growing up,” Madell said. “From the time I was old enough to velcro my shoes on and go play soccer, I was involved in organized sport. it was every sport under the sun — from tennis to volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, T-ball … Yeah, I was just super involved in athletics growing up.

“And so it was really tough coming home from the hospital at first and being in the house with a recently acquired disability and still not healthy enough to go out and be playing with my friends or be active. But we decided early on that sport needed to be a part of my life still afterwards because it was such a huge part of my life beforehand.

“So I started off in sledge hockey. We saw some posters at the Alberta Children’s Hospital for the local Calgary Scorpions sledge hockey team. So we went and tried it, but holding on to a hockey stick without fingers was not great — not an easy task. Holding on to a hockey stick in either hand for sledge hockey required a whole lot of duct tape, and that was just the risk for a shoulder, wrist, elbow injury or something being all taped on if you get pinned against the boards. And so we moved on. I tried wheelchair basketball a few years later. I absolutely love the sport of basketball. I still play it to this day just to do some fun cross-training to stay in touch and involved in that community. So I could sit in the gym and shoot hoops for two hours a day and never get bored of it.”

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But it’s wheelchair rugby that has him chasing medals and being a spokesperson for Lululemon.

The company founded by University of Calgary graduate Chip Wilson in 1998 in Vancouver is outfitting all the Canadian Paralympians for Paris.

“Lululemon has done a great job of designing the kits, so we can take some pride in and have the Maple Leaf with us everywhere we go,” said Madell. “Especially with Paris going to be one of the hottest games to date, a lot of comfort has been taken into account for us.

“Very thin, very breathable … and then there’s all kinds of accessible features as well, like the pants that are designed to be seated pants for wheelchair users. A lot of the bags will have zipper pulls for people with limited hand function like myself, making it a little bit easier. Some of the zippers on jackets have a magnetic fastening system, so it’s a little bit easier than struggling with limited function to get those zippers done up.

“So Lululemon really thought of everything and took the athletes’ input to help brainstorm and think of everything, which was really cool to see.”

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Even cooler would be to see Madell & Co. wearing the Lululemon gear on the podium in Paris.

Madell’s come a long way after debuting for the Canadian national team at age 17 at the 2011 Americas Zone qualification tournament, hoping to help Canada forget its last two Olympic misadventures — fourth in Rio, and fifth in Tokyo.

“We want to make sure we don’t have a repeat of that,” added Madell, of a schedule that sees Canada play Pool A preliminary games against the United States on Thursday (5:30 a.m. MT), Germany on Friday (9:30 a.m. MT) and Japan (9:30 a.m. MT) with the aim of making the playoff round Monday and Tuesday. “We’ve always got our eyes on the podium, but there’s also seven other teams in this tournament with their eyes on the podium, so it’s not gonna be easy.

“We’ll just have to go see who wants it more.”

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

www.x.com/ToddSaelhofPM

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