What are the major barriers to participation?
In the early years of the Paralympic Movement, Canada built up a reputation of excelling in Paralympic sport. However, now the world is getting better and the depth and level of competition is greater than ever. The depth of Canada’s high-performance Paralympic athlete program has been described as being “a mile wide an inch deep”. Our success as a nation has been achieved by a few outstanding Paralympians who have risen to prominence despite a weak and underdeveloped sport and athlete development system and lack of awareness of Paralympic sport in the general population. In order for Canadian athletes and coaches to continue to achieve international success it is essential that a well defined and clearly coordinated development system be established, to actively train and support the next generation of Paralympians. Strengthening the delivery capacity of Paralympic sport from grassroots to podium is largely dependent on establishing effective and efficient provincial Paralympic sport
