Danielle Peers is a Canadian former wheelchair basketball player. They are an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures.
Peers was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, alongside their older brother Jamie. They began playing basketball at the age of 10 but began showing growing signs of muscle imbalance as a teenager. They eventually switched to wheelchair basketball in an effort to give their legs a rest before being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. [1] Following their diagnosis, Peers retired from the Grant MacEwan Griffins Women's Basketball team and was named an assistant coach. [2] However, Peers wished to continue to play basketball and was invited to try out for the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team. [1]
Peers made their Paralympic debut for Team Canada at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, where they helped the team win a bronze medal. [3] Upon returning to Edmonton, Peers became the first woman to play on the Alberta Northern Lights men's roster after practicing with the team for seven years. [4] In their debut, Peers recorded the second-highest point total on the team with 14 in an eventual 74–52 win over the Utah Jazz. [5] At the conclusion of the season, Peers helped the Lights become the first Canadian team to win a National Wheelchair Basketball Association championship. [3]
Peers was also scouted by members of France's men's wheelchair basketball team who invited them to become a benchwarmer for the C.S. Meaux. They eventually began playing 40 minutes a night and was awarded an apartment, training, and a small stipend for their play. [6] At the conclusion of the season, Peers was named MVP of the 2006 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship and the 2007 National Championship. [7] While they trained to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, Peers was also working towards their master's degree at the University of Alberta. [1] Despite the training, Peers missed the competition for they were forced to undergo heart surgery. [7]
Peers eventually retired from competitive wheelchair basketball to pursue a career in academia focused on disability. Alongside Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere, they conducted a study on the impact reverse integration had on disabled athletes self-image. [8] As a result of their research, Peers received the 2009 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, a 2011 Trudeau Scholarship, and a 2015 Banting postdoctoral fellowship at Concordia University. [9] In 2011, Peers was inducted into the Wheelchair Basketball Canada Hall of Fame. [10]
Following their PhD, Peers was appointed an assistant professor in Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta (U of A). [11] In 2020, Peers was named a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Disability and Movement Cultures at U of A. [12] As a CRC, Peers led a research study examining available information online on athletes with disabilities. Their findings found an overall lack of accessible information on websites after examining the construction of para-athletes within 127 national and provincial-level sport organizations, as well as a number of the nation's elite clubs. [13] Following the studies publication, Peers was also granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor. [14] Prior to the start of the following term, Peers was recognized with U of A's 2021 Killam Accelerator Research Award. [15] While serving as an associate professor, Peers also became the co-director of the Just Movements CreateSpace, co-principal investigator of the Re-Creation Collective, and Academic Lead on Equity Praxis and Systemic Ableism at U of A. [16] In September 2023, Peers was awarded the Order of Sport, marking induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. [17]
The World Abilitysport Games are a parasports multi-sport event for athletes who use wheelchairs or are amputees. Organized by World Abilitysport, the Games are a successor to the original Stoke Mandeville Games founded in 1948 by Ludwig Guttmann, and the International Stoke Mandeville Games—the first international sporting competition for athletes with disabilities, and the forerunner to the modern Paralympic Games.
Wheelchair rugby is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is practiced in over twenty-five countries around the world and is a summer Paralympic sport.
Richard Marvin Hansen is a Canadian track and field athlete, activist, and philanthropist for people with disabilities. Following a pickup truck crash at the age of 15, Hansen sustained a spinal cord injury and became a paraplegic. Hansen is most famous for his Man in Motion World Tour, in which he circled the globe in a wheelchair to raise funds for charity. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2006. He was one of the final torchbearers in the 1988 Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was profiled and spoke during the 2010 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony.
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Dylan Martin Alcott, is an Australian former wheelchair tennis player, former wheelchair basketball player, radio host and motivational speaker. Alcott was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, known colloquially as the Australian "Rollers". At the age of 17, he became the youngest Rollers gold medal winner, at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and was the youngest to compete in the wheelchair basketball competition. In 2014, he returned to wheelchair tennis with the aim of participating at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, at which he won gold medals in the Men's Quad Singles and Doubles. He was named the 2016 Australian Paralympian of the Year due to his outstanding achievements at Rio.
Robert Daniel Steadward, is a Canadian retired sports administrator, professor, sports scientist, and author. Steadward helped organize the first Canadian wheelchair sport national championships in 1968, and later coached Canada in wheelchair basketball at the Summer Paralympics. He became a professor at the University of Alberta in 1971, later served as chairman of the Department of Athletics, and published more than 150 papers about disability sport. He was the founding president of the Alberta Wheelchair Sports Association in 1971, founded the Research and Training Centre for Athletes with Disabilities in 1978, served as president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee from 1984 to 1990, and later became a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
The Alberta Pandas ice hockey team represents the University of Alberta in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association of U Sports. The team was led by head coach Howie Draper from 1997 until 2023, when Draper left to become head coach of PWHL New York. The current head coach is Darren Bilawchuk. The program has won the most Canada West conference championships with 14 and the most U Sports national championships with eight.
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Canada competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016.
Marni Abbott-Peter is a Canadian retired wheelchair basketball player and current head coach of the Canadian senior women's wheelchair basketball team. As a member of Team Canada, she won three gold medals and one bronze during the Paralympic Games as well as four World Championship titles. She was inducted into the Canadian Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame in 2015. She is married to fellow Paralympic athlete Richard Peter.
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Canada competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 August to 5 September 2021.
Robert Easton is a Canadian retired Paralympic athlete who competed in wheelchair racing. He is a member of the Canadian Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Canadian Cerebral Palsy Sports Hall of Fame.
Kevin Orr is an American Paralympic athlete and coach. Orr won two bronze medals at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in the 800 and 5,000 meter races. Upon retiring from playing, Orr became a coach for Team USA and Canada.
Diane Rakiecki is a Canadian Class 4 wheelchair racer, wheelchair basketball player and wheelchair tennis player who competed in the Paralympic Games and the World Athletics Championships. She won medals in national and regional Canadian wheelchair championships and the World Wheelchair Games. Rakiecki won the women's exhibition 800 metres wheelchair competition at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome and helped the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team to win the bronze medal at the 1990 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in France and the gold medal in the women's wheelchair basketball tournament at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. She finished second in the first ever officially recognized women's handcycle race of the New York City Marathon at the 2000 edition.
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Renee del Colle is a Canadian wheelchair basketball player who played for the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team in international competition. She won two Paralympic gold medals representing the women's national wheelchair basketball squad at both the 1996 Summer Paralympics and the 2000 Summer Paralympics as well as two victories in the final of the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in each of 1994 and 1998.
Marnie Peters is a Canadian former wheelchair basketball player and accessibility consultant who won gold medals in each of the women's wheelchair basketball tournament at the 2000 Summer Paralympics and the 2002 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. She was also part of the Ottawa Shooters team that won the 1995 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League National Championship and took gold at the women's wheelchair basketball competition at the 1999 Parapan American Games.
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