A few days before she was set to compete at the Paris Paralympics, Canadian canoeist Brianna Hennessy said she was overwhelmed by emotion.
In canoe, Para athletes are fully integrated with their able-bodied counterparts. The entire Team Canada comes together for training camps, and international competitions include both sides of the sport, too.
Except at the Olympics and Paralympics.
“This is the only world-stage event where we’re separated or segregated,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy, the 39-year-old from Ottawa, is in Paris for her second Paralympics and looking to reach her first podium. She’ll compete in the women’s KL1 200-metre kayak singles and VL2 200m va’a singles events beginning Friday at Vaires-sur-Marne Stadium.
But even amid the spectre of claiming her first medal, Hennessy is vying for something grander.
“Good on all these incredible Olympians that are kind of saying, ‘Hey, don’t be sad. The Olympics aren’t over. The Paralympics are coming.’ But I just kind of want to celebrate my sport specifically for how we have really already created that big pumping heart of a Maple Leaf on the world stage in all of our other events,” she said.
‘Bigger picture’
To that end, Paris Olympic champion and three-time medallist Katie Vincent said she plans to watch her teammate Hennessy’s races from vacation in Nicaragua.
Vincent said it was “a little strange” not having the Para team alongside her in Paris.
“They have a good sense of humour and they always kind of keep the mood light. And so that’s always been nice to have around, especially at the big races. So not having them there, we definitely felt it and definitely noticed it,” Vincent said.
But the Olympic canoe team consisted of 13 athletes. The Canadian Para team, meanwhile, is made up of just Hennessy, Erica Scarff and Mathieu St-Pierre.
Hennessy said she is drawing inspiration from Scarff, who competed at Rio but failed to qualify for Tokyo.
“You have to kind of step back sometimes and look at the bigger picture,” she said. “It’s great if we can medal for our country, but what is everything here really representing? If we can inspire one person with disabilities or one person that lacks self-confidence in their life or give one person hope along the way, have we not impacted something in real life a lot more than just being top three on the podium?”
Sports as saviour
Hennessy has been an elite athlete for her entire life. She played on the national rugby team, competed in double-A hockey and won an Ontario boxing championship before being struck by a speeding cab driver in 2014 in Toronto.
She was diagnosed as a tetraplegic and still lives with chronic pain, but used — and says she still uses — sports as her main avenue of rehab. Hennessy took up wheelchair rugby following her accident and continues to compete for the national women’s team, but men’s teammate Patrice Dagenais suggested she take up Para canoe during the pandemic.
It was an immediate fit. Hennessy placed fifth and eighth in two finals at Tokyo 2020, but has since notched five medals across three world championships, setting her up as a podium contender in Paris.
Hennessy said her favourite sport at heart remains rugby. While it’s a mixed event at the Paralympics, Team Canada did not feature any women.
The Canadian women’s national team placed third at a World Cup in France last year, and the hope for Hennessy is that one day there are separate Paralympic tournaments for men and women as there are in wheelchair basketball.
“I think we’re so close. It’s really in our grasp at this point. And we’re supposed to be having another World Cup in December in Paris again,” she said.
WATCH | Vincent wins Olympic gold in Paris:
Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ont., claims the gold medal in the women’s canoe sprint C1 200-metre final at Paris 2024 with an Olympic record time of 44.12. Canada establishes a new record for gold (eight) and total medals (25) at a non-boycotted Summer Games. Sophia Jensen of Chelsea, Que., finished sixth in the final.
‘It’s just another day’
Meanwhile, Vincent is waiting to time out the perfect moment to send her pump-up message to Hennessy.
The two remain in constant communication despite their current distance.
“I’ll probably start with a couple things just to make her laugh and just to remind her that it’s just another day of canoeing and kayaking, what we do every day,” Vincent said.
“That’s what I was definitely reminded of a couple weeks ago in Paris was, it’s crazy. There’s thousands of people there. There’s all this noise. But at the end of the day, you’re out there doing the same thing you do every day.”
“She’s able-bodied and she looks up to me. And I get choked up with this because I call her my lucky charm, and she’s here. She’ll be here watching me in Paris. But to have that sort of crossover impact on the next generation, even children without disabilities, that to me is the power of sport,” Hennessy said.
Immediately after Hennessy gets out of her canoe, you may see her share an embrace with British competitor Emma Wiggs.
The Canadian said it’s a tradition they’ve had going for a while now — one meant to symbolize communities coming together through sport.
“Wherever we’ve come from, whatever our stories, our journeys, we’ve overcome something together in that moment,” Hennessy said. “And that to me means more than anything.”