A local track and field coach will be making his way to Paris next month to coach the Canadian team at the 2024 Paralympics.
Brett Lumley, associate head coach of the Windsor Lancers track and field team, has been announced as one of four event coaches for Team Canada.
Lumley will be working directly with eight athletes in long-jump, throwing, and the 4x100m Universal Relay.
Lumley has been a coach at the University of Windsor since 1999, and has been to Paralympic Games twice - including the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and the 2021 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.
He says he's been working with most of the athletes for nearly five years.
"I'm really excited, I know this group of athletes is very talented, each one of them is trying to push themselves to the podium. So, I'll be one of the event coaches, I'll be working with mostly one jumper, and seven throwers, so looking forward to it. And also assisting with the Universal Relay which is co-ed, and it's one athlete from four different disability categories."
Lumley says the athletes will soon be travelling to Barcelona.
"We're going to go there for a week and basically allow the athletes to acclimatize, both to the temperature and to the time zone changes. And then we'll move into Paris a week after that, and that opportunity gives us to kind of get to know the athletes a little bit better, work with the personal coaches a little bit more."
He says he has been to the Games twice before.
"I think that experience aided me in being selected again this year, I mean I'm always excited to represent Canada, wear the maple leaf. I'm just as proud of being up there as the athletes are, and again helping those athletes and support them as they're pushing to have their best performances."
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place from August 28 to September 8.
Overall Team Canada is expected to send approximately 130 athletes.
