PATH TO PARIS: USask’s Wassermann prepared for Paralympics

In less than two years in the sport, the 24-year-old Para rower and University of Saskatchewan (USask) education student has climbed the ranks all the way to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. From the nightmare of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash to the dream of competing on the world’s greatest stage, Wassermann’s remarkable rise has surprised even himself.

“It is really exciting and it probably won’t hit me until we touch down in Paris,” said Wassermann, who was officially named to Canada’s Paralympic team on June 20, after initially qualifying a spot for Canada by racing to a silver medal in the men’s PR1 singles category at the 2024 World Rowing Americas Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Rio de Janeiro on March 16. “I would imagine that is when it will start to feel real is when we get into the Olympic Village and everything starts happening. I think I am still processing it, and it doesn’t feel real yet. I didn’t expect to be going there this year, so I am just very excited, working hard, and getting ready to take it all in.”

One of the 13 survivors of the horrific 2018 Broncos bus crash that took 16 lives, Wassermann was left paralyzed from the waist down and facing both physical and emotional wounds from a day that changed his life. But the determination and dedication that drove him as a hockey player helped him face his new reality, as he turned to sports once again. He first tried his hand at sledge hockey and adaptive water-skiing, before quickly developing a passion for rowing after testing the waters in the sport for the first time at an open house for the Saskatoon Rowing Club in 2022.

Training twice a day on the water and in the weight room, it wasn’t long before he was leaving competitors in his wake, winning a gold medal in the men’s PR1 2,000-metre race at the 2023 Canadian Para Rowing Championships in Victoria, before making waves on the international scene with his silver-medal performance at the 2024 Paralympic qualification regatta in Brazil that secured a spot for Canada in Paris.

“To make the Paralympic Games so early in his Para sport career is a sign of his skill and commitment,” said Karolina Wisniewska, co-chef de mission of the 2024 Canadian Paris Paralympic Team, in the June 20 announcement that Wassermann had officially made the team. “His future in sport is definitely bright and I know all of Canada will be cheering him on as he races in Paris.”

Buoyed by the wave of support that he has received from the rowing and sports community across the country, and from his fellow Humboldt crash survivors forever bonded in brotherhood by shared grief and determination to move forward, Wassermann will also have his closest family members with him to share the experience of a lifetime in Paris.

“I’ve had a ton of support from people reaching out and sending congratulations and saying that they are going to be watching me, so it feels awesome to have so many people so supportive of me,” said Wassermann. “My wife (Madison) is my biggest supporter and has always been there for me throughout all of this, the good days and the bad days. So it is great that she is going with me to experience this.

“And it is great that my parents (Mara and Kirby) and my brother (Daniel, a fellow USask student) and my mother and father-in-law (Suzanne and Darren Toombs) are also coming too, so I will have a bit of a cheering section, which will be awesome. And I know I will have my friends, my teammates, and everyone cheering me on from back home, too.”

Wassermann said he has also received plenty of support on campus from classmates and professors on his path to the Paralympics, while juggling training and competition with classes and courses, including his first student-teaching placement back home in Humboldt in the spring. With the school term completed, he is now fully focused on his final preparations for Paris.

“We are training just as hard as before, training six days a week and have had a couple of competitions this summer too to help get ready,” said Wassermann. “We were recently out in Calgary at a regatta competing, so there is lots of prep leading up to it. We want to make sure that I am properly prepared and healthy going into the Paralympics.”

Wassermann will head overseas on August 24 and will have a few days for final training and time to familiarize himself with the facilities and course and set up the boat, prior to taking part in the Paralympic opening ceremonies on Aug. 28. Wassermann’s men’s single sculls heats will begin on Aug. 30, followed by the repechages on Aug. 31 and the medal finals scheduled for Sept. 1 at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris.

As he looks ahead to being a part of the globe’s greatest sports spectacle as the world gathers in Paris for the Olympics and Paralympics, Wassermann can’t wait to don Team Canada’s colours and complete a journey that has taken him from tragedy to triumph.

“It is special and it is really exciting,” said Wassermann. “I had a dream my entire life of becoming a professional athlete, of competing on the biggest stage. And to be going to Paris, it is finally happening. So it feels pretty amazing, pretty surreal, and I am really proud of how far I have come. And I can’t wait to get there.”