BARRHEAD - Heidi Peters is hoping the third time is the charm.
In late August, the 29-year-old Neerlandia native will compete in her third Paralympic games in Paris, France, as part of the Canadian Women's sitting volleyball team. This time, she wants to come back with a medal.
In Peter's first Paralympic experience in 2016, Canada placed seventh. In Tokyo in 2021, the women's team narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth.
Peters has been a member of the team since 2013 after undergoing treatment for osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, which saw her left leg amputated. Her first Paralympics were the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
Before her illness, contracting cancer she was a fixture on her volleyball school teams in junior high at Neerlandia Public Christian School and Barrhead Composite High School. Peters also played club volleyball in Grade 12, when she developed what she thought were shin splints but later discovered was cancer.
The team qualified for Paris in November at the 2023 World ParVolley Sitting Volleyball World Cup in Cairo, Egypt, by winning their semi-final against Germany before losing to China in the final.
To prepare for the tournament, Canada went to Val-de-Reuil, France, for a four-day mini-camp.
"It was awesome. It was a huge weight off our shoulders," Peters said. "It was so stressful, and the only thing you think about outside the Paralympics itself."
Canada had hoped to qualify earlier when they hosted the ParaVolley PanAmerica Zonal Championships in May, mainly buoyed by the squad's strong performance at the World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball World Championships five months earlier, where the team earned its first-ever podium finish, taking silver. But, unfortunately, they lost out to a strong U.S. squad.
"At the start of this year, we set one goal for ourselves: to qualify for Paralympics in 2023, and we did it," she said.
Had the team not qualified, they would have had one more opportunity at a last-chance qualifier earlier this year. Something Peters knows from personal experience. The Canadian women's sitting volleyball team earned the last Tokyo Paralympic birth.
"It was pretty intense to compete in the last chance qualifier, so we wanted to get it done and have that peace of mind going into that Paralympic year," she said. "I'm just so proud of us. The [Cairo] tournament was a grind, but we just put our heads down and did the work."
So far this year, Canada's women's sitting volleyball team has held four four-day mini-training camps at the Edmonton Volleyball Pickleball Centre.
At the beginning of the year, Peters said she trained three days a week between the training camps. However, more recently, she has upped that to four days a week, including practices with most of her teammates and coaching staff, who, like herself, make Edmonton home.
In May, Canada had hoped to host a series of exhibition games. Still, unfortunately, there were no takers, so instead, Peters said they held a series of intrasquad games, including players on the men's sitting volleyball team during the Super National at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
In early June, the team played in their first tournament of the year, the World ParaVolley Super 6, in Nancy, France.
"The best teams in the World play there, and being that it was so close to the Paralympics, it was treated as a test event," Peters said.
Regrettably, she said, Canada did not play up to its potential and finished fifth.
"We underperformed mentally and physically," Peters said. "It was our first competition of the year, and we were so excited to compete; I think the pressure got the best of us."
The squad returned home before jetting off to compete in the Dutch Tournament from July 5 to 7. Although it is strictly an amateur tournament, many nations have sent their national teams to it, including this year's Brazil, Italy, and the U.S., all of which will be playing at the Paralympics. Canada took home gold.
"We played well in all of our matches, beat Brazil twice, and I am proud of how we were able to bounce back in such a strong tournament," she said. "For the first time in quite a while, we felt like ourselves and go back to our roots and execute."
As for what's next, in about two weeks, at the end of July, the entire Canadian women's sitting volleyball team will converge on Edmonton for an extended 10-day training camp before leaving for Val-de-Reuil, France, on Aug. 17. They will stay for five to six days before leaving for Paris and the athlete's village, with the Paralympics taking place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
Peters has temporarily paused almost everything except for training to prepare for the upcoming games.
"I love the sport and this team and want to give everything I have to it. Anything is a detraction," she said, adding that she plans to resume her education following the Paralympics.
Peters is three courses short of getting her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at MacEwan University.
"I'm pretty fortunate; all my training expenses, travel to training camps and tournaments are covered. It is about having enough money to live, and as a carded athlete, I get stipends," she said. "It isn't a lot, and I'm not swimming in money, but I can make it work. At least for the short-term, but it is a sacrifice I will make for my dream."
When she is not training, Peters is busy with her podcast, which she started with her mother in February. She also maintains the Canadian sitting volleyball teams' social media channels.
Peters also hopes everyone will tune in to the Paralympics, not just to watch her and her teammates but also all the other Paralympic athletes.
"It is just the most amazing, magical time, and I hope people will watch and engage with it," she said.
Peters added that as excited as she is to be making another appearance at the Paralympics, she is more excited for her teammates, who will go to their first games or were just there for the Tokyo Games.
"It will be a very different experience coming out of the pandemic when no fans and very rigid testing were allowed in the stands. Even in the village, we did not talk to anyone outside our team," she said. "To have the real games experience. It is just the best. Being in the athlete's village in a world where the majority of people have disabilities, it is built for disability, with ramps and guides for those who are visually impaired everywhere. It is the most fantastic place, and I am excited to be back in that world, playing my favourite sport on the world's biggest stage. I am so privileged."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
