Paris Paralympics to feature five uOttawa athletes as part of Team Canada
The University of Ottawa will have five students and alumni competing for Canada at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, representing four faculties in four different sports.
Current students Bianca Borgella, Anne Fergusson, and Trinity Lowthian and will be joined in Paris by alumni Julia Hanes and Brianna Hennessy. The group makes up the largest uOttawa contingent to compete at one Paralympic Games, and may bring home some hardware.
Bianca Borgella, a third-year Biology and Life Sciences student in the Faculty of Science and member of the Gee-Gees track and field team, is making her Paralympics debut following an impressive set of performances at the international level which have her poised for medal contention in Paris.
Borgella won the silver medal in the 200 metres T13 at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships and added a bronze medal in the 100 metres T13. She holds three Canadian records, in the 100 and 200 metres as well as the 400 metres event. Borgella won the Canadian championship in the 100m T13 to begin July 2024. With the Gee-Gees, Borgella ran the 60m and as part of the 4x200m relay team at the 2024 OUA Championships.
In Paris, the 100m T13 is scheduled for Tuesday, September 3 with heats in the morning and the final later that day at 2 p.m. ET.
A second member of Canada's Para Athletics Team, shot-putter Dr. Julia Hanes will also compete in her first Paralympic Games. Hanes earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from uOttawa in 2021 and is now a resident doctor based in Vancouver. Originally from Windsor, Ont., Hanes competes in the F33 classification for shot put and has set numerous records in her career. At the 2024 Canadian Track and Field Championships, she broke her own Canadian record three times, with a final throw of 7.06 meters.
Hanes also holds the Canadian records for women's discus and javelin throws in the F33 category, but will only compete in shot put in Paris. Watch Hanes go for gold on September 5 at 1:40 p.m. E.T.
Brianna Hennessy (Health Sciences '08) is making her second Paralympics appearance. The powerful canoe athlete trains out of the Ottawa River Canoe Club and is certainly a medal contender: she captured her fourth straight silver medal at the 2024 Para Canoe World Championships, racing in the women's VL2 200-metre. In Tokyo, Hennessy competed in two events in her Paralympic Games debut, placing fifth in the VL2 and eighth in the KL1.
A member of the Gee-Gees women's rugby team in 2003-04 and Human Kinetics graduate, Hennessy has also competed in wheelchair rugby as a member of Team Ontario. At the spectacular new venue in Vaires-sur-Marne, France, 39 kilometres from the Paralympic Village, Hennessy will race starting with heats on September 6. The semifinals and final are set for September 7.
Anne Fergusson is a third-year Faculty of Law student, pursuing her Juris Doctor. From Carleton Place, Ont., Fergusson first made the sitting volleyball national team in 2013 and competed at the 2016 and 2021 Paralympic Games. She was also a member of the 2022 team which won the silver medal at the World Championships. Fergusson previously earned a mechanical engineering degree from Queen's.
Team Canada is currently ranked first in the World Para Volley women's rankings and placed fourth at the Paralympics in Tokyo. Anne and the team will begin competition in Paris on August 29 with a pool play match against Slovenia. Canada will also face Rwanda and the Tokyo bronze medallists from Brazil in pool play.
The semifinals for sitting volleyball will take place on September 5, with the women's gold medal match slated for September 7.
Trinity Lowthian, a para fencer and a fourth-year Nutrition Sciences student in the Faculty of Health Sciences, will compete at her first Paralympics in Paris. Her recent international results include two gold medals won at the Americas Championships event, topping the field in both the women's B Sabre and épée events. At the 2023 under-23 World Championships, Lowthian won a bronze medal in épée.
A multi-sport athlete, Lowthian was a member of the Gee-Gees nordic ski team each of the last two years, including winning three gold medals at the 2023 OUA Championships in sit ski and para relay.
Wheelchair fencing was one of the eight sports included at the inaugural Paralympic Games in 1960 and has been featured at every summer Games since. In Paris, wheelchair fencing events are being held in the captivating Grand Palais with Lowthian slated to compete in women's Class A sabre and épée, with the sabre event on Tuesday, Sept. 3 and épée on Friday, Sept. 6
A historical list of uOttawa Paralympians is available here, alongside details of uOttawa's past Olympians.