Felicia Voss-Shafiq will be looking to help Canada's women's sitting volleyball team build on its best Paralympic finish in Tokyo after being named to the Paris 2024 team.
The Burnaby athlete will be making her third Paralympic appearance after also attending the Summer Games in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2020).
She has been a member of the women's sitting volleyball team since 2015.
At the Tokyo Paralympic games, the women's sitting volleyball team had its best-ever finish, just missing the podium in fourth after a bronze-medal match loss to Brazil in four sets.
Voss-Shafiq has also been a part of the 2015 Parapan Am Games team (bronze), 2018 World Championship team (seventh place), 2019 Parapan Am Games (bronze) and the 2022 World Championship team (silver).
In 2011, a bad case of pneumonia sent her into septic shock and threatened to end not just her volleyball career but her life.
She woke up after a two-week coma with her hands and feet bandaged.
Her hands would recover but not her feet, and both her legs were amputated below the knee.
“This sport has saved me in so many ways,” she told the NOW in 2021.
“It allowed me to achieve my goals of being healthy and active; it gave me another network of support when I needed it – this is support from women, strong, amazing women, who’ve gone through something similar, who’ve gone through adversity, who’ve evolved through adversity. It gave me back the sport that I loved.”
The Parks 2024 Paralympic games take place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
Canada will play preliminary matches against Slovenia (Aug. 29, 9 a.m. Pacific Time), Brazil (Aug. 31, 11 a.m. Pacific Time) and Rwanda (Sept. 2, 9 a.m. Pacific Time).
With files from Cornelia Naylor, Burnaby NOW
