OTTAWA, Canada — The Canadian women's sitting volleyball team is a real shot at gold in Paris, ranked number one in the world, looking to medal after just missing out in Tokyo three years ago.
"We try not focus on things out of our control like results and outcomes. The world ranking is something that we are aware of and proud of but it's not in our control and not our focus," explains Ian Halliday, Canada's Director of High Performance. " There is definitely some external pressure and focus that comes with it but we really try to stay within ourselves and stay within the team and focus on the process. Our goal is to medal"
The Canadian team has found their preparation up and down, with some big wins, giving them that top spot, but some surprise struggles, which has pushed improvement.
"Paris preparations have been going well. We started off the preparation period with some intra-squad matches at Volleyball Canada's Youth National Championships in Edmonton before heading off to Nancy, France for the World ParaVolley Super 6 tournament," said Halliday. "Unfortunately, we did not achieve the results we hoped for at that event, but there were some good learning opportunities for both athletes and staff and we followed that up with a 1st place finish at the Dutch Tournament in Assen, Netherlands. We are now back in Edmonton training for a couple weeks before heading to Paris later in August."
Planning out a Paralympic cycle is always a challenge, but Paris brought its own challenge thanks to the cycle only being three years.
"Obviously with the impacts of COVID-19, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics took place in 2021 so we've only had three years of preparation for Paris," remarked Halliday. "We are fortunate to have most of our athletes and staff returning from the Tokyo Games and that experience is so valuable when working towards Paris. We also have 3 athletes on the Paris roster who were not in Tokyo and they have really fit in well with the group and bring their own experience and excitement heading into the the 2024 Games."
Once things are down to the months leading up to the Paralympic Games things move on to a different focus, which is what Canada has been cultivating.
"Our focus this whole year has been process-oriented. Especially in a Paralympic year, it is easy to get caught up in the results and become very outcome focused," explained Halliday. "We have a style of play that we know we can be successful with and our focus has really been on doing the things that we can control and staying with the process."
Builidng a squad is a big focus for the future for Canadian sitting volleyball, which has a small squad to choose from, every player who went ot the selection camp made the team, but there are always athletes being kept up with, and will involve more work.
"We are usually looking ahead at least two quads (8 years) in much of our planning – so right now we are looking to LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032. We do not have a large athlete pool and that is something that we want to try and improve on for 2028 and beyond," said Halliday. "We are looking to hire some additional staff to support with athlete ID and recruitment as well as collaboratively build some programs and partnerships with provincial territorial organizations and our sport partners. Our goal would be to eventually have a Senior National Team and a Next Gen Team of potentially future Senior Team athletes but we have a long ways to go."
Halliday has a unique position with Volleyball Canada. As the High Performance Director for para volleyball he manages both the men's and women's programs (only the women qualified for Paris).
"A big part of my role is working with our sport partners and my colleagues with Volleyball Canada to be able to provide the best possible training environment and competition opportunities for both teams with the resources that we have available," says Halliday.
Resources being available is a key part of the discussion, para sport rarely has the type of support that other sport receives so that has been a big priority for Halliday.
"There has been a lot of positive growth with the women's team over the past 3 years with additional funding support, more staff and an increase in training and competition. Our goal for 2028 is to have both our women's team and our men's team competing in LA so we have some work to do."
Canadian women's sitting volleyball is in the middle of a series of great performances, looking to culminate in a medal in Paris, and beyond.
All photos courtesy OIS/Simon Bruty
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