As sad as it is to be saying goodbye to the beautiful city
of Toronto, I must say that our last day will always be remembered as my
favorite day. It started out with an early breakfast, followed by a meeting
with the USA women’s Wheelchair Basketball team where we got to take pictures
with their medals and learn about their training, their chairs and much more.
Getting to meet them on this day was made even sweeter due to the fact that
they had just won their gold medal the night before! Immediately following, we
found a spot in the stands and got to watch the USA men’s Wheelchair Basketball
team dominate Canada in the final game for the gold medal. Seeing our flag fly
high over the court was such an incredible moment. To end our trip, we were
taken on a cruise on Lake Ontario where we spent our last night together as a
group reminiscing about all of our favorite parts of this trip and how much we
learned. Such a great experience with such amazing people. I am sad that the
trip must come to an end but I know this group will be forever bonded by the
experiences and the memories we gained from Toronto 2015.
Judo is derived from the martial
art sport of jujitsu. In the Parapan American games, Judo consists of athletes
who have visual impairments. There are three classifications for Judo based on
the level of impairment each athlete acquires. B1 classified athletes are those
with low visual acuity or complete blindness. The next classification, B2, is
for athletes wit hslightly higher visual acuity than that of B1 but cannot
recognize the letter “E” from 4 meters away. The athletes with the least visual
impairment are classified under B3.
--Courtney Keeling