'Nervous energy' for Canadian athletes balancing stress, excitement with Paris Paralympics 100 days away

Travis Murao calls it "crunch time" and his favourite time of the year.

The wheelchair rugby player and several of his Canadian teammates are feeling the excitement, stress and other emotions with the start of the Paris Paralympics in 100 days on Aug. 28.

"I'm feeling excited. It's nervous energy," the 41-year-old Toronto athlete said ahead of his fourth Summer Games. "I'm looking forward to the grind up until the final competition [before the Games]."

Murao and his rugby teammates, who are eyeing their first Paralympic medal since capturing 2012 silver in London, secured a spot for Paris in March with a semifinal win over Germany at a tournament in Trentham, New Zealand.

Iulian Ciobanu is also excited about the experience he will gain playing in his third Paralympic boccia tourney. Also 41, he placed sixth at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio and didn't advance to the playoff round three years ago in Tokyo.

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The Montreal father of two daughters tells CBC Sports he isn't stressed about competing.

"It's a positive stress that gives [me] more desire [to compete and] not something [that makes you want] to quit," he said.

"[There's no] stress because I'm doing what I like to do."

For Tess Routliffe, Paris will represent her first Paralympics since Rio, where the Para swimmer from Caledon, Ont., brought home her first Paralympic medal, a silver in the 200-metre individual medley.

"I have waited a long time to be back at the Paralympic Games," said Routliffe, who missed the Tokyo event with a back injury. "I'm so ready to be there [in Paris] with all the athletes, race again and compete."

Last week in Toronto, Routliffe shaved nearly one second off her Canadian SB7 record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of one minute 30.47 seconds at the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic trials.

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About 4,400 athletes from 184 countries will compete across 22 sports in Paris.