'It's your story': N.S.-based Paralympian encourages new athletes to try parasport
CBC
One year ago, the Paralympic Games weren't even on 20-year-old Katie Pegg's radar.
From Scarborough, Ont., Pegg was settling into Halifax last September for her first year at Saint Mary's University.
But she found herself in Paris this week competing in the F46 shotput event at the Paralympic Games.
"To see how far I've come over this past year, and then to even be at this level, not many people get that opportunity," she said Wednesday from the Olympic Village in Paris. She placed seventh in her event.
"The fact that I've been able to do this alongside so many other people supporting me, it's definitely something to be proud of."
Pegg was born with a missing radial bone in her right arm. She competes in a category for athletes with an upper-limb deficiency.
She didn't know she met the criteria until last year.
It was only after she joined the university's track and field team, where she finished fourth at the Atlantic University Sport championships, that her coach, Jodi Langley, flagged her as a possible parasport athlete.
"Once I found out I could compete ... I was like, I'm doing this," she said.
Pegg trains at the Canadian Sport Institute Atlantic in Halifax.
Evan MacInnis, the institute's director of performance pathways, said Pegg's success is a great example of what can happen when athletes are encouraged to get involved in parasport.
"Sometimes it's knowing that an event like this exists, right?" he said Thursday.
"There's many different sports with many different disciplines. Anyone can find a home."
There were no Nova Scotia-born athletes at this year's Paralympics, but Pegg and New Brunswick triathlete Kamylle Frenette both train at the Halifax training centre.
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