Tokyo Paralympics are postponed, and that leaves athletes like Prince Albert's Erica Gavel waiting for answers. (Canadian Paralympic Committee)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Postponed

Tokyo Paralympics may be postponed, but Gavel’s looking at the big picture

Mar 26, 2020 | 10:35 AM

With the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games being postponed during this COVID-19 pandemic, Erica Gavel’s second Paralympic games appearance is in limbo.

Gavel is on Team Canada’s Senior Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball team that went to Rio in 2016 and qualified for Tokyo back in August.

The team has been preparing for Tokyo ever since, but now nobody knows what will happen next. Although seeing the games postponed is a tough pill to swallow for Gavel, she said there are larger issues to worry about.

“Yeah it is disappointing, but I don’t think the postponement of the games is the biggest problem in the world right now. I know people who are really struggling from an economic standpoint and who lost their jobs for the interim,” Gavel said. “The reality is, you’re really guaranteed nothing in high-performance sport. That happens all the time. I woke up one day, went to basketball practice and my [able-body] sporting career was over at that moment.

“We still have opportunities to train and we still can live that high-performance lifestyle, the timelines have just been delayed. We’re still getting that chance to compete.”

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Even before the games were postponed, the Canadian Olympic Committee had already made the decision that they wouldn’t send their athletes to the games as originally scheduled and called for them to be postponed.

“I’m really proud of our country being the first ones to say something… it showed the rest of the world that as focused as we are and as many medals, we want to perform for, the humanity of the athletes is greater than sports,” Gavel said. “I’m really proud of our sports system and all the leaders and how they stay so positive during the circumstances.”

During the COVID-19 concerns and social distancing, Gavel can’t train like she usually does. But she is using the opportunity to get cracking on her Ph.D. at Ontario Tech University.

“Luckily I’m doing my Ph.D. and I guess this COVID situation means I have to do more work in my writing,” Gavel laughed. “My productivity has definitely increased significantly as I’m not training four-six hours a day. That’s really helped me a lot.”

Dr. Heather Logan-Sprenger is Gavel’s supervisor in title, but Gavel considers her more of a “saving grace.” Like Gavel, Logan-Sprenger pursued her Ph.D. while being a high-performance athlete at the national stage, cycling in the summer and playing hockey in the winter.

“She’s a tremendous person and role model. Because she’s a national team athlete and has gone through this whole process in trying to get to the Olympics and has had setbacks. I wouldn’t be able to get through this without her,” Gavel said. “What I really appreciate is as soon as this announcement came out, we chatted and [she said] it’s one these things that are completely outside of my control. What I can control right now is my home training and what I’m doing from a school standpoint.

As for where the Paralympics and Gavel go from here, nobody really knows at the moment. But at least she has the right mentor to help her along the way.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW