Pan Am

It was a few months ago but the memories of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games are still alive across the University of Toronto and the entire GTA.

The university’s Governing Council recently relived some incredible moments as athletes reflected on the legacy of the games.

Four U of T athletes were on hand – three in person and one on video.

U of T alumnus Zack Chetrat, who won a bronze medal in the 200-metre butterfly, told governors competing close to home made the 2015 games an unforgettable experience.

“On the night of my race, I looked up into the crowd and saw my entire family and all my friends,” said Chetrat, who spoke via video from the pool deck at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC) on the UTSC campus. “To see a bunch of my teammates there, all wearing their U of T gear and cheering me on, was something very special.”

Shelley Gautier, a 12-time Paracycling Road World Champion and a repeat silver medalist in the event this year (she also won silver at Guadalajara in 2011 and is training for next year’s Paralympics) showed off a picture of her medal. Her mother had the real thing and was getting it and all of her medals framed to occupy a prominent place in the family home.

Pole vaulter Jason Wurster, whose games and summer were made particularly memorable by the arrival of a baby boy, and current world champion beach volleyball player Josh Binstock, who’s training for next year’s Olympics, talked about how exhilarating it was to play in front of a home town crowd – a rarity for athletes who regularly compete at venues around the world.

Beyond the memories, one consistent theme was the importance of the legacy left behind by the 2015 games.

“Most dramatically, we improved significantly the facilities for co-curricular sport, physical activity, recreation, health and wellness for members of our internal and external community,” said U of T President Meric Gertler, pointing to TPASC, the UTSC Tennis Centre, the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport and the Back Campus Fields. “These facilities are also conducive to better teaching, research and community engagement in sport as well as basic sciences, such as stress physiology and cell biology.”

Former Lieutenant-Governor David Onley, was the university’s Special Ambassador to the games.

“One of the most remarkable success stories from the Games was their integration,” said Onley. “They were fully accessible to all: to the athletes who came to Toronto to compete, to the spectators who came to cheer them on.”

U of T facilities were host to some of Canada’s best athletes – a fact confirmed by the medal count. At UTSC venues, Team Canada won 140 medals. The games also provided a venue for the university to welcome the Americas and the community. U of T Houses at UTSC and the downtown Toronto campus hosted almost 3700 guests over the course of the games. More than 20 U of T athletes participated in the games.

Should Toronto's success at 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games translate into an Olympic bid?

sgupta — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:01:25 +0000

Should Toronto's success at 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games translate into an Olympic bid? sgupta Mon, 09/14/2015 - 07:01

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U of T's Rosie Maclennan holds gold medals from the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games and from the 2012 Olympic Games (photo by Jason Ranson/COC)

Alan Christie

Author legacy

Alan Christie

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Bruce Kidd: “It makes far more sense to go for 2028”

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games worked “marvellously well” and now is the time to follow up with concrete action, says Professor Bruce Kidd – but that does not include bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Kidd is the vice-president and principal of U of T Scarborough and a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education.

He’s also a former Olympic athlete and a member of the provincial bid committee that brought the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games to Toronto.

In an interview with U of T News, Kidd said that “from my perspective and experience, the Pan Am bid was initiated largely to address the woeful shortage of good athletic facilities for high performance athletes and others in Toronto.

“Ontario had become the sick man of the Canadian sports system and study after study indicated an alarming deferred maintenance debt [on sports facilities]. The best athletes were leaving for other parts of the country or the U.S. and Europe to train.

“The Pan Ams and Parapan Ams worked marvellously well and out of them the Greater Golden Horseshoe got new or remarkably upgraded facilities, from Welland to Minden.”

Social media highlights of Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games

sgupta — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 11:37:47 +0000

Social media highlights of Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games sgupta Mon, 08/17/2015 - 07:37

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U of T's Shelley Gautier with silver medal (photo courtesy Canadian Paralympic Association)

Sarah Khan

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Sarah Khan

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Our Community

These alumni helped set the stage (literally) for the Parapan and Pan Am Games

sgupta — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 07:42:15 +0000

These alumni helped set the stage (literally) for the Parapan and Pan Am Games sgupta Mon, 08/17/2015 - 03:42

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Indrit Alushani worked at the Abilities Centre (above) which hosted boccia and judo during the Parapan Am Games (photo by Indrit Alushani)

Dale Duncan

Josie Harrison

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Josie Harrison & Dale Duncan

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Architecture grads Indrit Alushani and Craig Deebank explain what goes into the temporary infrastructure needed for events

Indrit Alushani and Craig Deebank have had a behind-the-scenes look at the many things cities must do to make large sporting events such as the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games possible.

The two recent Master of Architecture grads scored contract positions doing what’s known as Games overlay – designing and overseeing the construction of the temporary infrastructure required for venues hosting the Games.

Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Harrison spoke with them about their experience, what they have learned about designing venues for accessible international sporting events, and how the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design helped prepare them for their roles.

What exactly is “Games overlay”?

Alushani: Games overlay deals with the temporary infrastructure that is needed to run the Games. This includes but is not limited to commodities and spaces that are necessary to meet the standards of an international sporting event. Overlay managers collaborate closely with stakeholders and others who will use the venue to ensure the space that meets everyone’s requirements.

Deebank: I was told when I started that no venue is 100 per cent ready to host a game. There is always an alteration process that takes place based on the game’s unique standards and protocol. There are a lot of different client groups you have to please at the end of the day within the design and budget parameters you’ve been given.

In some cases, venues are 100 per cent overlay. For example, some venues are constructed over parking lots – such as the beach volleyball venue. The overlay team would bring in the temporary seating, sand, power, platforms, grandstands, broadcast stands and all of the other things required to make the venue and sport function. These are removed at the end of the Games and can be repurposed for other things.

Could you describe your role for the Games?

Alushani: I was first assigned to the East Zone team to help out six site managers who were in charge of designing and delivering the infrastructure of one or more venue. At first you would jump from one task to another, one venue to another. As things progressed I was assigned to assist in the delivery of the President’s Choice Pan Am Ballpark in Ajax where baseball and softball was held, as well as the General Motors Center in Oshawa for the weightlifting and boxing. Lately I've been working at the Abilities Centre in Whitby, which is hosting boccia and judo during the Parapan Am Games.

(Image below: Alushani at President's Choice Pan Am ballpark)

Deebank: As an overlay site manager in the West Zone, I was involved in managing the design of several venues and delivery phase of the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome. It’s a high-pressure environment. One day you’re working on coordinating the Velodrome cycling track; the next day you’re trying to plan the cycling time trial race. During the design phase you jump around from venue to venue, sport to sport, so there’s a lot of learning that takes place. A lot of the people working in our overlay department are architects or architecturally trained. It’s very much like a studio environment. We don’t do physical models, but we sketch a lot and use similar software. So it’s like being in a studio, but you are putting on the Games.

What kind of things did you have to consider when designing overlay with the Parapan Am Games in mind?

Alushani: The Abilities Centre building in Whitby has won a number of awards for design excellence with respect to accessibility. It serves as a center for rehabilitation and is a true celebration of barrier-free design, which made things quite easy for us in overlay as the building was already so well designed for individuals with physical limitations. The striking element in the building is the gradual ramp that starts from the ground floor and leads to the upper level. There was a great level of consideration for ramp slopes or demarcation of raised steps or cable flies in areas with high traffic. I have learned so much about accessible design. It was inspiring to see how design can create so many opportunities and become a means of inclusion.

Deebank: The Cisco Milton Velodrome is both a Pan and Parapan Am venue which I have been stationed at for the duration of the Games – it's a beautiful facility specifically designed to function for large track cycling events and accommodate a variety of accessible needs. During the design phase we had incorporated many barrier-free design features to our verlay spaces in order to reduce the amount of transition required.

In the West Zone, The Mississauga Sport Centre had the most Pan to Parapan changes as the overlay, sport and venue teams had transformed the venue to host combat sports (judo, taikwondo, karate and wrestling) and then wheelchair rugby, powerlifting and goalball. It was really impressive how that team transformed the hockey arenas into their current Games-ready state.

From an overlay perspective, the key things to consider were the Parapan user experience and to find design and cost efficiencies that would work for both Pan and Parapan's needs. I thought the TO2015 Organizing Committee had strong, experienced leadership with Parapan Planning and Integration and were able to help us collaborate through this unique process.

What have you learned from your experience working on overlay for the Games?

Alushani: Where do I even begin? This has been such a unique experience, and I consider myself lucky to have been part of it. Project management is one of the first things that comes to mind: being able to work with schedulers in order to have contractors build on time, meeting budgets and legal requirements, ensuring that the work is conducted safely, communicating and delegating work to a large number of people, from your own contractors to your colleagues. It is a huge role with great responsibility.

Deebank: It’s a very high tempo, fast paced, social, and collaborative environment. You have to be able to think quickly and be adaptable, and that’s been a fun challenge. I worked with many great people who have experience with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the World Cup in Brazil. Hearing what they did in these particular locations and the challenges they faced – be it a labour shortage or the need to use local materials – and how they problem-solved in those cases was really interesting. You learn more about the sports as well. I have spent a lot of time at the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome in Milton, so I learned a lot about track cycling; it’s incredible what the athletes can do. You don’t know how steep those curved walls are until you see it in person. And then you see the athletes ride at 70 km or more around it – it’s really cool.

(Image below: Deebank at Velodrome)

It has been great to see the large selection of Parapan sports offered. A few days ago I went to watch wheelchair rugby, a.k.a “Murderball,” at the Mississauga Sport Centre. As one would expect with a nickname of “Murderball,” this is a contact sport – those athletes are fierce competitors and can hit really hard! It was really entertaining and an amazing display of athleticism.

Speaking with a few of the athletes, coaches, sport organizers and volunteers throughout the Parapan Am Games, I've had the opportunity to learn about some of the athletes' stories and how they came to specialize in their Parapan sports. It's incredible what these athletes have accomplished and their commitment to their sport.

How did your time at the University of Toronto prepare you for this role?

Alushani: The Daniels Faculty is a world-class school of design in part because it emphasizes on collaboration and creativity. The Faculty welcomes people from different backgrounds both cultural and academic because diversity and collaboration is key to successful design ideas. The Toronto 2015 office has been one of the most diverse offices I have been to. People were coming from all ends of the world with different career backgrounds, working together to create one unique and remarkable final product, the Pan Am games.

Deebank: The Daniels Faculty really promotes the City as an organism, understanding the city, and where architecture and design fits within it. This has stuck with me, and I try to apply it wherever I go. The Faculty also provides a diverse and collaborative environment between landscape architecture, visual studies, urbanism, and architecture, and people coming into these programs with completely varied academic backgrounds. There is a cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving. That, I think, was very applicable to this job. I’m really thankful for what I’ve learned at Daniels, and how I’ve been able to apply it in a professional setting.

(Above: the President’s Choice Pan Am Ballpark in Ajax)

Josie Harrison is a student and Dale Duncan is a writer with the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design where this article originally appeared. Read more news from the Faculty.

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Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with U of T doctors

sgupta — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 10:01:52 +0000

Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with U of T doctors sgupta Fri, 08/14/2015 - 06:01

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Dr. Amanda Mayo is in the front row, third from right

Carolyn Morris

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Carolyn Morris

The Parapan Am Games in Toronto have reached the home stretch but health professionals from the University of Toronto are still hard at work behind the scenes, keeping the elite athletes at the top of their game.

Dr. Amanda Mayo is a lecturer in physical medicine and rehabilitation (physiatry) and works with amputee patients at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The lead doctor for Para Table Tennis at the Games, she also serves as a Paralympic classifier for athletics in Ontario, attending track and field events and training facilities to classify new athletes entering Paralympic sport.

Dr. Lee Schofield, a physician at the U of T’s David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic, is serving as lead physician for the Para-athletics venue.

The Faculty of Medicine's Carolyn Morris spoke with Mayo and Schofield about their work behind the scenes at and the legacy of the Parapan Am Games.

Mayo:

As a physiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, I see several para-athletes who are amputees – including para wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball players. Many U of T faculty in sports medicine and physiatry are lead physicians and medical team members at the Games. The medical team has strong expertise in para sport providing excellent evidence based care for athletes. Many have been involved in research of performance and outcome measures for physically disabled populations.

The Games have inspired many of my patients to get involved with more physical activity and parasport. I feel the best Games legacy is the great new accessible fitness facilities that are going to be available for people with physical disabilities. In my practice we’ve been implementing supervised circuit training and recreational therapy. Our rehabilitation team has developed these programs with the goal patients will gain skills and confidence to use community centres with accessible pools and fitness equipment. We now have MAR-Atos in Markham, the University of Toronto Scarborough’s Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, and Whitby Abilities Centre.

Previously Variety Village was the only major accessible local fitness centre, so this is huge for Toronto and the GTA.

Schofield:

I was part of the Canadian medical team for the Pan Am Games, and I am the lead physician for the Para-Athletics venue for the Parapan Am Games. In my daily life, I work as a family doctor at St. Michael's Hospital, and as a sport and exercise medicine physician at the University of Toronto’s David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic and at PIVOT Sport Medicine & Orthopedics. I also have athletes who compete in athletics and wheelchair basketball in my family practice, and have worked with para-triathlon and wheelchair basketball events in the past.

In many ways para-athletes have the same types of problems as other elite athletes. They’ve typically adapted well to using whatever specialized equipment they require, and the things we see them for are often not related to their disability. Sometimes athletes with prosthetics do have skin-related issues like pressure sores or skin breakdown. And thermal regulation can be an issue for patients with spinal cord injury.

We also see compensatory issues when athletes overuse certain parts of their bodies – for example we see rotator cuff injuries that come from using the upper body extensively. Parasport is great from a sports medicine perspective because of the different approaches to tackling a problem – the solution could be a matter of modifying equipment, modifying how the athlete uses the equipment, or working on their muscle imbalances.

Elite parasport performance and preparation also has a significant ripple effect on non-athletes living with disabilities. It shows the public and non-athletes how they can manage their injury or chronic disease and build strength, function and performance.

For example, the Canadian Armed Forces program Soldier On supports service personnel and veterans to overcome their physical or mental illness through physical activity and sport. It’s a fantastic program that can introduce or re-introduce active people into sport (and often they can get into elite parasport) after a devastating injury.

The technology developed to support these athletes can trickle down into the non-elite or non-athlete community. It’s mind-blowing when you consider what was available when Terry Fox had a leg amputation for osteosarcoma to the prosthetics that exist now for athletes and the general population.

And it’s been huge as well for parasport in general – with over 1,600 athletes from 28 countries competing, this is the largest Parapan Am Games to date. And while it all wraps up at the closing ceremonies on Saturday, it will leave its mark on accessibility in Toronto.

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Beyond Parapan: promoting inclusiveness in sport at the community level

sgupta — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 14:34:25 +0000

Beyond Parapan: promoting inclusiveness in sport at the community level sgupta Wed, 08/12/2015 - 10:34

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Igniting Fitness Possibilities brings students with and without physical disabilities together to develop skills and confidence in sports and fitness (photo by William Suarez)

Veronica Zaretski

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Veronica Zaretski

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The Parapan Am Games are in full swing, showcasing what elite athletes can accomplish and how they can perform on the world's stage.

What the University of Toronto's David Onley has called the “raw athleticism” of the world-class athletes is drawing spectators to a wide range of sports. And, thanks to two U of T researchers, excitement and inclusiveness in sport is also growing at the community level.

Assistant Professor Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos and Associate Professor Virginia Wright have developed a pilot program called Igniting Fitness Possibilities that brings together children and youth of all levels of abilities to gain skills and confidence in sport and fitness. It was created as a collaboration between Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education with funding from The National Bank, Milos Raonic and the U of T Connaught New Researcher Award.

U of T News spoke to Arbour-Nicitopoulos about the program and what it means to build a life-long enjoyment of fitness in both non-athletes and future athletes alike.

How does Igniting Fitness Possibilities work?
The program brings children and youth in grades 4 to 12 with and without disabilities together, first and foremost for the social aspect. The kids involved build new friendships and are getting motivated to be more active.

There are two phases to the program. The first is the Quick Start phase. The sole focus of this phase is to help build sports and fitness skills, and participating in sports, but also other existing programs in the community.

The kids get to take part in fitness activities, sports development and collaborative games. The games could be wheelchair basketball, for example, where the students learn how to use a wheelchair and how to manoeuvre it. The fitness portion consists of aerobic and muscular endurance activities performed as a group as well as in partners, such as circuits and yoga.

In the second phase, “Give it a Try”, the kids start in an existing program offered within their community. A lot of kids lack the skills or confidence initially, which they get in the “Quick Start” phase. In this phase the kids join such programs as wheelchair basketball, swimming, gymnastics, fencing, judo – basically any sport or fitness program that is of interest to them. We have a coach who supports them throughout both phases. This coach works with every six kids, trying to pique their interest to see what they might want to give a try.

The program is in its early stages, but so far we piloted IFP at Variety Village (Fall 2014 – grades 4-6) and at the Abilities Centre (Winter 2015 – grades 6-8) in Whitby. We will be piloting another two programs at U of T (with youth in grades 9-12) and again at the Abilities Centre (with youth in grades 6-8) this Fall.

How important is it to get kids involved early?
By the end of Quick Start the kids surprise themselves by how much they enjoy sports. They see that sports do not have to be regimented and that there are different ways of playing sports. My hope is that when we follow up with those kids later on they would have a different view about the variety of sports that they can play and enjoy.

We’re trying to do a better job than we were doing years ago. Many of the kids who are disabled would not have had the opportunity to participate in different sports within their neighbourhoods. The level of awareness for sports for people with different abilities has exploded in a big way.

Bringing the Parapan Am Games here is making people aware of the different sports in which para-athletes participate.

How does that benefit the city?
I think that having the Games here in Toronto is raising more awareness about how we use the term ‘disability’. What do we mean by that? What does it mean to have a disability? When you look at the Para Pan athletes I don’t think anyone can say that they have a disability. It gets people thinking more about the term ‘ability’ as well as accessible spaces.

When I went to Nathan Phillips Square (for Panamania), I was amazed how every space was accessible. The city and the government have contributed quite a large amount of funding to make spaces more accessible for the games, and as a result Torontonians now have more accessible spaces to be active in their community.

At the U of T reception of the Parapan Am Games, Joanne Berdan spoke of the term paratough, which was recently coined by the Canadian Paralympic Committee. That’s so true. The disability part is slowly going away, and people are recognizing the tremendous talent of these individuals. I’m hoping that the IFP program will provide one of many similar opportunities for kids in the future.

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Celebrating the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games

sgupta — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 09:42:37 +0000

Celebrating the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games sgupta Wed, 08/12/2015 - 05:42

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U of T Hall of Fame athlete Joanne Berdan (Bouw) and U of T's Pan Am/Parapan Am Special Ambassador David Onley celebrate at City Hall (all photos by James Poremba)

Brianna Goldberg

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Brianna Goldberg

Parapan Am: “Pick a sport you've never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

David Onley, U of T's Special Ambassador to the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, said the success of the Games is the result of years of planning and partnerships across the GTA. He celebrated the multitude of volunteers, including “University of Toronto staff, students, faculty and alumni of every description.”

Onley said he threw his agreement behind commentator speculation that the Games, even as they continue, have already proved to be a success. He described the event as embodying the values of athleticism, competition, collegiality, inclusiveness as well as the spirit of camaraderie.

Onley: Parasport is on the rise and here's why

To that point, Onley reflected on his experience watching one of the Parapan swimming competitions where a last-placed athlete finished a full lap and a half behind the other competitors – and yet received a standing ovation when he reached the final marker.

“Minor detail, he didn’t have any legs. He swam the whole race just with arm strength,” said Onley.

“This is an indication of the impact that Parapan has on people.”

(Above: sibling musical group DEYSofficial, including UTSC students, perform their original song at the U of T Parapan Am reception.) (Read more about DEYSofficial and watch a video of the Pan Am/Parapan Am song they composed by clicking through to the end of this Pan Am highlights story.)

Onley added that the Parapan games were conceived for exactly this purpose, “bringing people of the Americas together in fellowship, in friendly competition at the highest level,” and to help the world see “absolutely amazing athletes who just happen to have a disability.”

“I believe we are at a kind of tipping point. When we watch high-level parasport competitions we see awe-inspiring athletic performance. The reality of the disability comes afterward,” said Onley.

“And that’s ultimately the goal of all social and government policy relating to accessibility: to see the ability of the person and take the disability as just another aspect of their personal characteristics alongside such things as hair colour and eye colour.”

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Behind the scenes at the Parapan Am Games: U of T physiotherapist Agnes Makowski

sgupta — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 08:45:17 +0000

Behind the scenes at the Parapan Am Games: U of T physiotherapist Agnes Makowski sgupta Wed, 08/12/2015 - 04:45

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Physiotherapist Agnes Makowski, an adjunct lecturer in U of T’s department of physical therapy, works with athletes in Team Canada's men's wheelchair basketball team (all photos courtesy Agnes Makowski)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

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Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

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Sport

Pan Am

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Adjunct lecturer was also Team Canada physiotherapist at Pan Am Games

All athletes require the services of health professionals. Some inspire special devotion.

“The Parapan Am Games are unique in that the athletes are competing with a variety of physical conditions,” says physiotherapist Agnes Makowski, an adjunct lecturer in the University of Toronto’s department of physical therapy.

Makowski is one of dozens of U of T health care experts – family physicians, orthopedic surgeons, athletic therapists, nurses and dietitians – who have served on the sidelines and in the backrooms of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.

Her position this week is medical lead for the Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team, an impressive squad that outscored the competition 176 to 82 in its first two outings.

That kind of performance entails physiotherapy at a high level. Think of employing all the skill you have learned in school and on the job and taking it up a notch.

The range of Parapan needs is wide. Some athletes are dealing with visual dysfunction, others have impairments as a result of spinal cord injury. There are survivors of cancer who function as amputees and athletes who are born with congenital anomalies, such as spina bifida.

Spectators of wheelchair basketball naturally focus their attention on the tremendous arm strength and mobility of these athletes. But players with spinal cord injuries can develop back pain as a result of prolonged sitting.

Recovery time away from the sports chair is important, as are manual therapy, accupuncture and traction. Makowski adapts techniques and positions to each player, taking into consideration their impairments and whether they have metal hardware in their spines.

Other common ailments of high-performing wheelchair athletes are neck pain and injuries to the upper extremities such as rotator cuff impingement. No case is exactly the same.

“We do our best to look at each individual athlete and consider current health status, extent of disability and how we can maximize their performance through injury prevention,” Makowski says. “We give them training recommendations about their wheelchair seating and monitoring of their injuries.”

U of T has played a major role in the development of parasport through the Wheelchair Basketball Canada National Academy, which is based at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre at U of T Scarborough.

Makowski worked as a Team Canada physiotherapist during the Pan Am Games, but to return to the Parapan Am Games represents another level of commitment.

“The challenges for physiotherapists and other health care providers are to consider the individual athlete and focus on optimizing ability,” Makowski said. “We see athletes use sport to overcome impairments, and then compete at the highest levels.”

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Undergrads bring award-winning innovation to Accessibility Innovations Showcase at MaRS

sgupta — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 17:24:41 +0000

Undergrads bring award-winning innovation to Accessibility Innovations Showcase at MaRS sgupta Fri, 08/07/2015 - 13:24

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the IDeA team at Council of Ontario Universities)

Krisha Ravikantharaja

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Krisha Ravikantharaja

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Undergraduate Students

When these students attended their first live sledge hockey game, they were more interested in watching the players off the ice than on it.

Liam D’Souza, Angela Chen, Mazhar Jabakhanji, and Adithya Prashant were only in their first year of engineering science at the University of Toronto when they came up with their idea for The Swivet.

The invention went on to win the Parasport and Active Living Award at this year’s Innovative Designs for Accessibility (IDeA) Student Competition.

You can see their concept August 8 through 10 at the Accessibility Innovations Showcase at the MaRS Discovery District.

“It’s a swivelling cargo trailer that attaches to the back of a wheelchair and allows sledge hockey players to safely and independently carry their equipment,” says D’Souza.

The team developed The Swivet as part of a first-year design course in which they were asked to find a community in the GTA, and then find an opportunity where they could implement a design solution.

“We’re all hockey fans, so we went to an ice rink in Mississauga called Iceland. There was a sledge hockey game going on. We noticed that they were able to carry their equipment independently, but it wasn’t necessarily safely; the players in wheelchairs, specifically,” says D’Souza. “They had baggage all over them. We thought there could be a better, safer way for them to carry this equipment independently.”

D’Souza says that their design accommodates wheelchairs of varying sizes as it The Swivet only clamps to one handle, and that with a different type of attachment, it can also be used by wheelchairs without handles.

“It keeps all of their luggage at the back, doesn’t interrupt their field of view, and they can easily access it when they need to on demand,” he said. “With just a brisk turn of their wheelchair to the right after unlocking a hinge, the luggage will come up to the player’s side.”

Selected as one of ten finalists, the team went on to showcase their idea at the People in Motion Exhibition, where they took home the top Parasport and Active Living Award – a $1500 prize offered in recognition of the Parapan Am Games taking place in Ontario.

“We were really thrilled. We knew we’d put a lot of work into it. We felt like our work had paid off and we knew it was just the beginning of something good,” D’Souza says.

It was none other than the Honourable David Onley, U of T’s Special Ambassador for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, who presented the award. D’Souza recalls speaking with Onley just prior to the award ceremony.

“He was really encouraging. He told us we had a good idea. He’s really receptive to new designs and innovations, especially by young people,” D’Souza said.

D’Souza says the team members faced their fair share of challenges developing the Swivet.

“There were design challenges, and there were also times when we thought it just wouldn’t work, that no one would buy into it. That was one of the challenges –just that we really had to persevere.

“The university provided a lot of support. Not just technical support but also a lot of encouragement at times when it seemed that we really had nothing. They kept us going, especially our TA’s. Our professors, Jason Foster and Robert Irish, were really helpful as well. They’re senior design professors at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at U of T. They were of great help to us throughout the process.”

But what about the name?

“It’s two fold. Swivet combines two words, ‘swivel’ and ‘pivot’. The other part of the name is that it’s actually also a word which means ‘a panic’ or ‘a fluster’. It was a few weeks before our showcase. And you could say we were in a swivet to find a name. So we thought, why not?’”

The team is continuing to refine the Swivet’s design.

“We hope that one day we can bring a product to market,” D’Souza says. “We feel that we owe it at this point to the community and to others as well – to bring a general product, I want to specify that, not just a product for sledge hockey players. A product that can be used in multiple settings, to carry whatever you need to carry.”

D’Souza says that he has learned a lot from the experience and not just about design.

“The experience has taught me that if you design something really useful and you put a lot of effort into it, people will take notice. They will respect what you’ve done and help you.”

Krisha Ravikantharaja is a student at the University of Toronto.

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Parapan Am preview: “Pick a sport you’ve never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

sgupta — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 13:36:27 +0000

Parapan Am preview: “Pick a sport you’ve never seen before and prepare to be amazed” sgupta Wed, 08/05/2015 - 09:36

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Sitting volleyball is one of the events hosted by the University of Toronto Scarborough (photo by Matthew Murnaghan/Canadian Paralympic Committee)

Brianna Goldberg

Author legacy

Brianna Goldberg

Pan Am

Remembering the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games

Read more about the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games

Should Toronto's success at 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games translate into an Olympic bid?

Read more about the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games at U of T

Social media highlights of Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games

These alumni helped set the stage (literally) for the Parapan and Pan Am Games

Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with U of T doctors

Beyond Parapan: promoting inclusiveness in sport at the community level

Celebrating the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games

Read more about Berdan's induction into the U of T Hall of Fame

Parapan Am: “Pick a sport you've never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

Onley: Parasport is on the rise and here's why

Behind the scenes at the Parapan Am Games: U of T physiotherapist Agnes Makowski

Undergrads bring award-winning innovation to Accessibility Innovations Showcase at MaRS

Parapan Am preview: “Pick a sport you’ve never seen before and prepare to be amazed”