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About Ryan
About Ryan
BIO:
Growing up in the small town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia I’ve always had an optimistic, friendly and positive outlook on life! The first 18 years of my life I dedicated to my family, friends, sports and education. Starting high school I wanted to pursue a career as a clinical psychologist and give my best shot at a potential career in hockey.
I am constantly setting and accomplishing goals. I played many sports throughout my educational career and have won many titles in: track and field, hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball, badminton, golf, and wrestling. I’ve travelled many places including: Toronto, Ont., Ottawa, Ont, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Orlando FL, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Wales (England), London (Great Britain), Dublin (Ireland), Kerry (Ireland), Notwill (Switzerland), Lucerne (Switzerland), Sursee (Switzerland), Warm Springs GA, Daytona FL, Stoke Mandeville (Great Britain) and Paris (France). Many of these places, including all across Nova Scotia and other places in Canada and U.S.A, I’ve traveled to for hockey tournaments and games. All of this has shown me many different cultures and I have met many people, leaving me mature and smart in many ways.
On January 10th 2013 I was driving my Honda Prelude and it rolled over sideways in the ditch. I sustained a spinal cord injury at the C7/C8 level, this left me a quadrapalegic. I am paralyzed with no movement or sensation from the nipples down and have limited hand function. This hasn’t slowed me down though, instead of the usual 4-6 months for someone with an injury like me it only took two and a half months to be ready to leave the rehabilitation facility. My first day there I was amazing physiotherapists and was told I was 6 weeks ahead of schedule! By the first time I left I could do things like get dressed on my own, transfer into the shower, get into and out of bed and I knew all of the advanced wheelchair and mat skills including getting onto and off the ground with minimal assistance!
After discharge I was only home for two weeks then had to return to rehab for blood pressure issues. Being back at the rehab facility, I had already learned the basic and some of the advanced skills, so every day I would go to the wheelchair skills lab to perfect my skills. I also would lift weights eventually becoming very strong for my level of injury. Because I was my therapist’s “super quad” she tried to get me involved into a lot of different activities and soon everyone wanted me to try their sports or play for their teams! I kept getting asked to play basketball, quad rugby, also I did swimming, kayaking, rowing and track!
After trying track I felt I had a natural skill at it, and having an athletic background before helped me to quickly adapt to a routine of rigorous training. So far, with my new life I’ve decided to give it my absolute best shot at a track career. Already, within just one year, I have travelled to Daytona and Warm Springs for training as well as Switzerland for competition and was chosen for the U23 Canadian Jr. National Team to compete at the 2014 IWAS World Juinor Championships, meanwhile I'm attending school online to get a degree in psychology for now.
Additional Information:
Club - Valley Athletics
Disciplines - 100m, 200m, 400m, Shotput, Discuss
Teammates - Ben Brown, Pamela LeJean, Casey Perrin, Veronica Coombes, Wes Vick, Brett Babcock, Scott Jones
Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/paratrackmovement
(In Progress)
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