Jacob Wasserman was a talented ice hockey star before an accident in 2018 killed 16 of his team-mates and left him paralyzed – but he is now set to represent Canada at the 2024 Paralympic Games
Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A Paralympian who survived a bus crash killing 16 people will make his debut at the Paris 2024 Games.
Former hockey prospect Jacob Wasserman is set to represent Canada in Para rowing – six years after a tragic collision left him paralyzed from the navel down. Wasserman was the number-one goalkeeper for his junior ice hockey team – the Humboldt Broncos – until the devastating 2018 accident changed his life forever.
The goaltender and his team-mates were on their way to compete at a play-off game in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League when the team bus was struck by a lorry. The other driver had failed to halt at a flashing stop sign and hit the coach, killing 16 Broncos players and staff and becoming Canada’s deadliest road accident for 20 years.
Wasserman was one of just 13 survivors, though he emerged from the incident paralyzed from the waist down. But having taken up Para rowing in late 2022 after a friend suggested it, the 24-year-old has gone on an inspirational journey to compete at the Paris Games.
His rapid rise in the sport culminated in him winning a gold medal at the Canadian Para Rowing Championship. Wasserman was also able to clinch silver at the 2024 World Rowing Americas Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Rio de Janeiro, which meant he qualified for a spot in Canada’s Paralympics team.
The athlete’s original plans were to make the LA Olympics but his talent has fast-tracked him to an appearance in the men’s PR1 single sculls in Paris. His event – the 2,000-metre race for rowers without leg or trunk function – gets underway on August 30.
A gruelling workout regimen has seen him spend the past month training six days per week – twice daily – on a current-free Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan. Supporting him in Paris will be his wife, brother and parents. And he still counts his former Broncos team-mates among his most ardent fans.
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Wassermann said: “All those guys are my biggest supporters, I think, besides my wife and family for sure,” before adding that he’s also grateful for the support he receives from across Canada.
“They’re the best. We keep in touch all the time. At least once a year we all try to meet up and they’ve sent lots of words, saying they’re pumped for me and they can’t wait to watch me out there.”
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He has also tried his hand at other adaptive sports such as Para ice hockey and adaptive water skiing. But he has since left his sledge hockey ambitions behind, believing that the hockey chapter of his life ended with his injury.
“I like to compete,” said Wassermann. “I like how hard the workouts are. It’s a bit of a thrill, too, to be out there on the water and doing things that I wasn’t doing before I was injured.”
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