Amazing Athletes: An All-Star Look at Canada’s Paralympians

With the next Paralympic Games set to begin in Beijing, China, in a few months, every school or library needs at least one copy of Amazing Athletes: An All-Star look at Canada’s Paralympians. Olympic athletes, by definition, are exceptional. Paralympic athletes are exceptional plus, having risen to the top of their sports, despite physical, visual, or intellectual disabilities.

Amazing Athletes begins with a brief history of the Paralympics and a list of the summer and winter para sports. True to its name, the book is then organized around 13 Canadian summer and winter Paralympians, not around a sport.

But, in addition to biographical information about each athlete, the author also includes information about the Paralympic sport in which that Paralympian excels and provides some insight into how the athlete became a competitor in that sport. For example, Ahmad Zeividavi, a refuge from Iran, competes in goalball. Ahmad has been blind since birth. The author uses quotations from Ahmad to explain how he became a Paralympian.

I discovered Goalball when I was 13 and immediately fell in love with it. It made me feel I was in control of my environment. It’s a sport that demands a great deal of concentration and agility, and strong team spirit. (p. 40)

Goalball is one of only two Paralympic sports without an Olympic counterpart. (The other is Boccia.) All athletes in goalball are visually impaired. The ball contains noise bells. During a goalball game, everyone must remain silent. Imagine being a spectator only allowed to make any sound after a goal is scored! That would take showing your support to a whole other level.

Each of the first nine chapters, after the introduction, highlights nine different Paralympians and their sports. Each of these chapters also includes at least one other Paralympic star in that sport. The final section, “Up-and-Coming Stars”, highlights four of the next generation of Canadian Para athletes with promising futures.

Amazing Athletes: An All-Star Look at Canada’s Paralympians is one of those rare books that I can recommend for all ages. It is well-written, full of facts and colourful and inspiring photos of athletic stars, and it is about Canada.