Vincent Dallaire got a taste of what he and his teammates on Canada's men's wheelchair basketball were in for when he arrived at Bercy Arena in Paris.
The United States were playing Germany in a Paralympic preliminary-round game, and the arena was buzzing. It was only going to get louder when Canada played host France later Friday.
"We knew it was going to be incredibly loud," Dallaire said. "We got here, it was USA and Germany playing and it wasn’t even a packed crowd and you couldn’t hear anything.
"We knew it was going to be super loud, we knew it was going to be super impossible to hear. "
The Canadians decided the best way to counteract the atmosphere was to stick close to what they had been doing in practice, and it worked. Colin Higgins of Rothesay, N.B., had 38 points as Canada defeated France 83-68.
"It’s amazing. I mean, it’s so hard to replicate that in practice where you can barely hear six feet ahead of you," said Quebec City's Dallaire, who added four points and four rebounds.
"We came out like we wanted. We executed and we came out with the win and it’s a good start for us. We just tried to echo throughout within the five of us and just went from there."
The result was part of a solid day for Canada, which picked up two more bronze medals in track cycling.
Keely Shaw of Midale, Sask., repeated her podium result from Tokyo three years ago when she finished third in the women's 3,000-metre individual pursuit and Alexandre Hayward of Quispamsis, N.B., took bronze in the men's pursuit in his Paralympic debut.
The medals gave Canada four bronze over the first two days of full competition at the Games.
In men's basketball, veteran Patrick Anderson of Fergus, Ont., had another brilliant game for Canada, scoring 31 points and pulling down 12 rebounds to kick off his sixth and final Paralympics.
Canada trailed 41-39 at the half after being outscored 21-13 in the second quarter. But the Canadians rebounded with a brilliant second half, outscoring the hosts 44-27.
"It’s a start. It’s step one of where we want to be, right? Just one at a time and go from there."
"The refs weren't calling a ton of fouls, so we knew we could play — we could up that edge," Higgins said. "So we tried to be a little more physical, make it a little more tough on their shooters."
Nicolas Jouanserre led France with 38 points and six rebounds.
Higgins said he felt nerves playing in front of a vocal crowd after making his debut at the pandemic-restricted Tokyo Games three years ago.
"Tokyo was my first Paralympics. Obviously, it was nothing like this so I've never played in front of a crowd like this," Higgins said,
"A lot of goosebumps and butterflies to start, but you come out and get your first shot, and everyone really rallies behind each other and to feel the team come together and get the (win) is huge."
Canada next faces Britain on Saturday.
In track cycling, Shaw beat Samantha Bosco of the United States with a personal best time of three minutes 46.942 to Bosco's 3:48.589 to win bronze.
"In order to be a good pursuiter, you need to be really good at turning off all your signals because my brain is screaming at me to stop," Shaw explained. "It is a mental game to say 'no, you will not die.'"
Australia's Emily Petricova ended the gold-medal bout early by overtaking New Zealand's Anna Taylor.
Hayward defeated Spain's Eduardo Santas Asensio by over three seconds in 3:24.865. Jaco van Gass downed Finlay Graham for gold in an all-British matchup.
“I was proud of myself before I got here this morning,” said Hayward. “If I think about the feeling that has stuck with me the most over the last few weeks, it's pride.
"I feel like I've set my expectations too high. But at the same time, you know, this team, I'm literally surrounded by Paralympic and Olympic legends. It's easy to imagine when all your teammates are doing it like it's nothing. I'm really proud of it all.”
In boccia, Montreal's Alison Levine advanced to the women's individual quarterfinals with a 5-3 win over Ukraine's Natalia Koneko. Levine finished 2-1 in the preliminary round and will next face Colombia's Leidy Chica on Saturday. Levine defeated Chica in the gold-medal match at the 2023 Parapan Am Games.
In para archery, Kyle Tremblay of Deep River, Ont., overcame rainy weather and moved on to the 1/8 elimination round of the men's individual compound with a 140-135 win over Iran's Alisina Manshaezadeh.
“It felt really good. The heavy rain in the practice ends before kind of threw off my sight, so I had to adjust for that," Tremblay said. "Then when we entered this match, the rain lightened up, which throws off your sight again.
“You just got to be able to adapt on the fly, maybe compensate with where you're releasing, stuff like that.”
Tremblay will face Austria's Michael Meier on Sunday with a quarterfinal berth on the line.
In wheelchair rugby, Canada rebounded from a tournament-opening loss to the United States with a 54-47 win over Germany. Zak Madell of Okotoks, Alta., was Canada's leading scorer for a second straight game after putting up 28 points against the Germans.
“Yesterday was a little uncharacteristic for us. We didn't play as clean as we normally do, so we wanted to regroup and redeem ourselves," Madell said.
“Germany played a very strong game — obviously the best teams in the world are here. They fought hard and made us work until the very end. They clawed their way back into it, but we had to keep our feet on the gas and come out on top.”
Canada finishes preliminary-round play Saturday against undefeated Japan.
Canada's women's goalball team fell to 1-1 with a 2-1 loss to Japan. Ottawa's Emma Reinke had the only goal for Canada, which opened competition with a 10-0 rout of France on Thursday.
Canada wraps preliminary-round play Sunday against South Korea.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2024.
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