Canadian Paralympic teams traveling a redemptive arc into Paris Games

Heidi Peters joined the Canadian women's sitting volleyball squad in 2013, one year after the team missed out on qualification for London and essentially disbanded.

"I think literally two athletes didn't retire. The whole team just, poof, gone," Peters recalls.

It was, essentially, rock bottom.

Over the past decade, the team has steadily rebuilt itself. The Canadians qualified for Rio 2016 but placed seventh of eight teams. At Tokyo 2020, they played for a medal but wound up in fourth. And at the 2022 world championships, the team advanced one level further but fell short in the gold-medal game.

"I really think Paris is our time to put it all together," Peters said. "There is something so magical about the biggest stage in the world and I can't wait."

The women's sitting volleyball outfit is one of five teams Canada is sending to the Paris Paralympics, a list that also includes wheelchair rugby (a mixed sport), women's goalball and men's and women's wheelchair basketball.

Each of those teams heads to Paris at different points in their evolution, with different meanings ascribed to potential podium performances.

WATCH: Canada's co-chefs de mission: "We're ready for the Paralympics":

For the women's sitting volleyball team, a gold medal would be the pinnacle of a long climb to the top.

Peters said that when she looks back on Rio, she wishes the team had taken its competition somewhat more seriously. She called Tokyo a "grind."

"We've lost in a lot of big moments and learned a lot in a lot of big moments and won some big games, too. But it's really hard to win and really hard to be at the top," she said. "And yes, we're veterans. And yes, most of us have played this sport for five-plus years, been in a lot of those big situations. But to be able to do that consistently at the top is a really difficult thing to do.

"And that's a lesson and that's something we have to figure out how to do."

Danielle Ellis, the team captain, is one of the two players who remain from before the 2012 Paralympics miss.

She said it would be a "dream come true" to win Paralympic gold.