Canadians, Chileans lean into Parapan Am Games pride

There was a simple message from Canada’s co-chef de mission, Josh Vander Vies, ahead of the Parapan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.

Before the cauldron was lit and the athletes paraded around historic Estadio Nacional, welcomed by thousands of dancing, cheering, jubilant fans.

And before the whistles blew, the horns sounded and guns sounded to signal competition.

“Lean into pride. Canadian pride. Sport pride. Disability pride. Now is the time to celebrate that Canadian leaf on our chest,” Vander Vies said.

Message received. 

For the past nine days in the Chilean capital, 135 Canadian athletes from all parts of the country put forward memorable performances, tallying 52 medals all while gaining valuable experience for their sporting battles ahead.

It was, in some respects, a rookie squad with dashes of veteran experience. The team included 64 Paralympians, 18 of whom have won medals at past Games.

But there were also 55 athletes appearing in a multi-sport Games for the first time, including 24-year-old Torontonian Jesse Zesseu.

He only started Para sport two years ago and found himself on the international stage in Santiago — Zesseu met the moment, winning silver in the men’s discus throw F37.

He raced to his coaches, who had a Canadian flag ready. Zesseu couldn’t drape himself in it fast enough, something he dreamed of while growing up. 

“It’s surreal. In the bathroom you have your towel and you do that in front of the mirror all the time. I think I did that when I was little,” he said.

“I remember I was at Canadian Tire when I was 12 years old and I touched Rosie MacLennan’s medal. I went home and pretended I had the Canadian flag around me. To do that this time for real, it’s incredible.”

Canada’s closing flag-bearer, Boccia star Alison Levine, won double gold. She beamed with confidence and swagger throughout the event.

“I played amazing. I don’t want to sound immodest but I did. And I feel great. This whole competition felt different. This year has felt different,” she said.

Co-opening flag bearer Rob Shaw, who four years ago won wheelchair tennis gold at the Lima Games, found himself in a dramatic gold medal showdown with local Chilean athlete Francisco Cayulef.

Despite losing a grueling match as local fans cheered wildly throughout in the main grandstand tennis venue, Shaw showed brilliant sportsmanship by waving his hands in the air at the end to get the crowd even louder for Cayulef’s win. 

“I know how big that moment is. I can only imagine it is for him in his home country. He played better and needed to soak up that moment,” Shaw said.

“There’s history to be made. Records to be written. When there are nice people achieving great moments you can’t help but be happy for them.”

WATCH l Rob Shaw secures men’s wheelchair tennis silver:

The women’s goalball team captured the imagination of many Canadians through its tenacity, team work and how they stuck together throughout the event. It led them to winning gold in a thrilling 4-3 final over the Americans.

After the game a jubilant Amy Burk didn’t hold back her emotion.

“How was that for ya? Oh baby, it’s sweet. It’s amazing. This team has worked so hard. We hung on and it was our game. Solid team effort,” she beamed.

“There’s not much to say. We left everything out there. We just stayed calm. We had a lot of work in the last year and a half. We do this for you and we do this for our country. This is incredible.”

‘Determination, trust and commitment’

The team had a Canadian flag they kept throughout the competition with the words determination, trust and commitment written on the back. The team motto.

With the win, the Canadian women’s goalball team locked a spot at the Paralympics next summer in Paris.

Billy Bridges, who represented Canada at six Paralympics in Para ice hockey, taught all of us it’s never too late to try something new.

Bridges made his Parapan Am Games debut, making the switch from the ice to the heat and competing in the summer field sports of shot put and javelin.

Stephanie Chan, 66 years old, won her sixth Parapan Am Games medal in Para table tennis while Fernando Lu, 16, won his first medal in swimming.

And the men’s Canadian wheelchair basketball team lived to fight another day, securing victory in a must-win bronze-medal game against Argentina.

Patrick Anderson, from Edmonton, who was competing in his sixth Parapan Am Games at 44, led the team to the win with clutch baskets down the stretch.

“It feels really good and a bit of relief. But it also feels like a step. When you’re a good team trying to be great there are very few easy steps,” he said.

The team will now compete in a last-chance Paralympic qualifier next April in France.

WATCH | Some of Canada’s memorable performances from Saturday in Santiago:

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The women’s wheelchair basketball team won silver, losing to the Americans in the title game. But what will stick with Canada’s Arinn Young for a long time is how the Chilean crowd supported the Canadians throughout the game.

A massive crowd chanted throughout the match, trying to rally the Canadians.

“I’m speechless. You have a full stadium chanting Canada. They’re rooting for you to win from the bottom of their heart and it just means the absolute most to us to Canadians that we have another country on our side,” Young said.

Those cheers rained down every day of competition on Santiago.

There’s a famous rallying cry that has echoed in sporting venues across Chile for nearly a century.

It’s a spellbinding chorus of unified voices, fans all chanting at once.

The ceacheí dates back as early as the late 1920s, when fans would celebrate their sporting heroes in the field of play. This cheer is part of the fabric of Chilean culture and those who have grown up in this country and compete at the highest level of sport can only dream of one day basking in the reverberations of this most spine tingling serenade.

Throughout the last nine days of competition at the Parapan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, the ceacheí circulated around venues — fans whipped into a frenzy over their para athletes and their memorable performances.

Athletes with disabilities, who get small slices of the spotlight, became household names in Chile throughout the Games.

There was signage at every turn in Santiago letting people know the event was taking place and that you had to be there to witness these extraordinary athletic performances.

And the people came. Droves of fans filed into the venues.

It seems Vander Vies’s words were also heard by Chileans, who no doubt leaned into sport pride, disability pride, and embraced the athletes throughout.