By Jeff D'Andrea

Paralympian Hudson shares his story as Canada Cup wraps up

May 21, 2018 | 6:31 PM

Every athlete that travelled to the 2018 Canada Cup outdoor archery meet in Prince Albert this weekend has their own story in how they were introduced to the sport.

Leoville’s Bob Hudson is one of resilience and facing challenges head on.  

Back on Feb. 8, 2003, Hudson was left paralyzed from the waist down after a snowmobiling accident.

A moose tried to dart across the track, but instead collided with Hudson.

“Some think that [the moose] tried to cross in my lights. It was either a little slow, or I was a little fast or whatever—it got me,” Hudson said. “And when I hit the trail, I landed on my tailbone and broke my back.”

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During his recovery, Hudson was encouraged to pick up a sport. Living in a small village in Saskatchewan, Hudson said the options were limited and figured his choice would be between hunting and archery. Hudson chose archery, figuring it would be more of a challenge as he already had a bunch of experience hunting.

It was difficult starting out, as Hudson basically had to teach himself a sport he knew little about.

“Probably the biggest challenge is being in an area where there was nobody to guide me in what I was doing, teaching me the ropes of how everything works. No shops around to buy stuff,” Hudson said. “Once I started to get on that kind of thing, it was personal challenges—doing better than what I did last time.”

It’s that drive that allowed Hudson to continually rise in the sport. He won a silver medal at the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. The sport of archery has also taken Hudson around the continent to Canadian and American national titles, as well as around the world to China, Korea, Czech Republic and Germany.

“It was really nice to travel with the sport,” Hudson said. “I never knew the options were there when I first started. It was opportunity to see a lot of things and meet a lot of cool people.”

According to Hudson, just about everybody in the sport of archery belongs in that “cool people” description.

Even at the sport’s highest levels, the athletes are more of a family than they are opponents. Hudson said it’s not at all unusual for those to give or lend equipment to each other during competitions to make sure everybody can compete.

“When you’re sitting in Europe somewhere and a string goes, someone else has got a bow that’s the same as yours so they’ll take the string right off their bow, or else give you their bow to shoot and you put your equipment on there,” Hudson said. “It’s amazing people, that’s what it’s all about.”

Below are a list of all the cool people that came to the Canada Cup at the Alfred Jenkins Field House this weekend who finished in the top three of their categories.

Senior/Junior male compound

1. Jordan Adachi
2. Simon Potrebka
3. Austin Taylor

Senior/Junior male recurve

1. Conner Sorley
2. Aaron Cox
3. Terrence Trendocher

Senior/Junior female compound

1. Dawn Groszko
2. Ashlyn Scriven
3. Madison Hart

Senior/Junior female recurve

1. Kelly Murray
2. Randi Haas

Cadet/Master male compound

1. Rudy Jampen
2. Brady Klassen
3. Robbie Comberbach

Cadet/Master recurve male

1. Scott Gordon
2. Dawson Oderkirk
3. Andrew Smollett

Cadet/Master female compound

1. J’lynn Mitchell,
2. Nattasha Shpak
3. Shelby Smith

Cadet/Master female recurve

1. Jessica Gegner
2. Amy Lafond

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW