PATH TO PARIS: USask alum earns bronze medal at Paralympics

The celebrated graduate of the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has earned a bronze medal in her second straight Paralympics, finishing third Friday in the women’s 3,000-metre individual pursuit C4 event, to capture Canada’s third medal of the 2024 Summer Games. The Saskatchewan cycling star from Midale also won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021. 
 
‘’Winning one medal at the Paralympics is pretty incredible but to repeat three years later is absolutely incredible,” Shaw said in an interview with the Canadian Paralympic Committee on Friday. ‘’I didn’t even allow myself to hope for this. The sport has come so far since Tokyo with the times getting progressively faster and faster. I was hoping just to get into the medal match, to get a bit of redemption on the American.’’ 
 
Shaw earned her Bachelor of Kinesiology (2016), master’s (2020) and PhD (2024) at USask before beginning a post-doctoral position at the University of Calgary in January. Shaw also won the prestigious Governor General’s Gold Medal at USask in May and has now climbed into the international sports spotlight at the Paralympic Games. 

“It has been a heck of a year and now with the Paralympics in August, it is quite the wild ride,” Shaw said in an interview with USask’s On Campus News, prior to heading overseas for the Paralympics. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend (USask) convocation because I was away training, but I was talking to one of the professors and he said, ‘How fitting is it that you can’t come because you are training for what is part of what makes you so deserving of the award.’ But I am hoping that maybe, in addition to the Governor General’s medal, we can win a couple more medals and come back to the university in the fall for a big celebration.” 
 
On Friday, Shaw beat American Samantha Bosco by 1.6 seconds in the head-to-head race to the finish line to earn the bronze medal. 
 
Shaw’s remarkable resume in Para-cycling also includes winning 10 World Cup medals and six at the world championships, as well as the two bronze medals at the Paralympics, this one in front of family and friends in Paris. 
 
“It is going to be nice to have the stands full and some of the days are already sold out, so it is going to be a packed house,” Shaw said, prior to the Games. “And having my family there is going to be super special. I am lucky that my mom (Carol) and my dad (Greg), my husband (Andrew) and my in-laws (Beth and Scott) will be there, and my grandma (Alice) will be flying out. I also have an uncle (James) who lives in Paris who will be there, so there will be plenty of friendly faces for me.” 

Shaw will also compete in the upcoming road time trial (14 kilometres) and the road race (71 km) at the Paris Paralympics. 
 
“I am so excited not only to have my family there, but for the world to see our sport,” said Shaw. “Para-sport is so little known compared to able-bodied sport, so it will be really, really exciting to showcase what we can do and to show just how far our sport has come in the last few years.”

Meanwhile, USask College of Education student Jacob Wassermann of Humboldt, a 24-year-old survivor of the devastating 2018 Broncos bus crash that left him paralyzed from the waist down, made his Paralympics debut in the PR1 Para-rowing single sculls 2,000-metre preliminary heats on Friday and went on to compete in the repechage and B-final on the weekend, finishing 10th overall.

“It’s just the beginning,” Wassermann told USask alum and CBC sports reporter Devin Heroux. 
 
PARIS POINTS: University of Saskatchewan alumna Keely Shaw also raced in the women’s Para-cycling road time trial on Wednesday at the Paris Paralympics, finishing fifth … USask alum Julie Kozun and Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team will face Brazil in Saturday’s bronze medal game after falling 3-0 to China in Thursday afternoon’s semifinals at the Paralympics. “I think our goal was to go out there and put everything we had on the court,” Kozun said in an interview with the Canadian Paralympic Association. “We’re scratching the surface of our best volleyball, but we weren’t quite playing our best volleyball … China is a tough competitor. It’s nice to play high-level volleyball with a high-level team, but I think we had more in the tank and we just weren’t able to execute on it today.” Kozun and the Canadian team went 2-1 in the opening round to qualify for the semifinals, and look to improve upon their fourth-place finish at the 2021 Paralympics in Tokyo … USask alumnae and Para-swimmers Shelby Newkirk and Nikita Ens raced with teammates Sebastian Massabie and Reid Maxwell in the mixed 4x50m medley relay, finishing sixth in their heat. Newkirk will swim in her best event, the 100m backstroke S6, on Saturday, the day before the closing ceremonies … USask student Ashlyn Renneberg placed seventh in the F13 women’s javelin last Saturday with a throw of 30.93 metres in her Paralympics debut.