Peterborough Paralympic Athlete Cody Caldwell Nominated to National Wheelchair Rugby Team For Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Games

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Peterborough’s Cody Caldwell has been named as one of 12 wheelchair rugby athletes nominated to represent Canada at the Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Games announced by the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Wheelchair Rugby Canada announced on Monday.

Canada expects to send a team of approximately 140 athletes to the games. File Photo.

The following are the 12 representatives:

  1. Cody Caldwell – Peterborough, Ont.

  2. Patrice Dagenais – Embrun, Ont.

  3. Matt Debly – Windsor, Ont.

  4. Byron Green – Victoria, B.C.

  5. Trevor Hirschfield – Parksville, B.C.

  6. Rio Kanda Kovac – Toronto, Ont.

  7. Anthony Létourneau – Boisbriand, Que.

  8. Zak Madell – Okotoks, Ab.

  9. Travis Murao – Toronto, Ont.

  10. Eric Rodrigues – Mississauga, Ont.

  11. Patrice Simard – Quebec City, Que

  12. Mike Whitehead – Windsor, Ont.

The Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Games will occur on Nov. 17 to 26 in Santiago, Chile. The wheelchair rugby tournament in Santiago will take place from Nov. 18 to 23, with the winner earning a spot in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games next summer.

The current list of athletes nominated to the team can be found online. The approved final roster will be announced closer to the start of the Games according to a press release.

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Local Athlete Lands in Tokyo For the 2021 Paralympics To Bring Back Gold

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It was a long plane ride from Canada to Japan but Paralympian Cody Caldwell has arrived safely on Wednesday to compete in the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games.

File Photo.

File Photo.

Caldwell confirmed on his Instagram that he made it safely to the Paralympic village on the Harumi waterfront district of Tokyo after leaving Canada on Tuesday.

“Late night arrival to the village but we made it,” he said on an Instagram post.

He is representing Team Canada in wheelchair rugby in his second Paralympics. His last appearance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil earned a fourth-place finish in 2016.

The Paralympics was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Caldwell is not the only family member on the trip as his father serves as the “jack of all trades” for the team.

“It’s a huge honour to be able to go with him and he’s pretty much drove us to hockey growing up and he’s drove us to any sport that we wanted to play,” explained Caldwell. “Now he gets to experience it from inside the ropes. It’ll be really cool for him and myself.”

File Photo.

File Photo.

The team has three scheduled round-robin games in Group B. The United States, Great Britain and New Zealand are the three other teams in Canada’s bracket.

The top two teams will advance to the semifinals to play against the other top countries in Group A —which consists of Australia, Denmark, France and Japan —in a single-elimination playoff round.

File Photo.

File Photo.

The following is Team Canada’s wheelchair rugby schedule:

  • Aug. 25 vs. Great Britain

  • Aug. 26 vs. United States

  • Aug. 27 vs. New Zealand

All games are at 12:45 p.m. (Japan Standard Time) and are held at the Yoyogi National Stadium.

“Peterborough has always been home. It’s a great city. I've always felt supported by it,” explained Caldwell. “To be from Peterborough and any time I get to represent it on the world stage, it’s a full-circle effect.”

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