Training has only ramped up for Asquith, Sask., athlete Ryan Rousell this summer, preparing for his second trip to the Paralympics in wheelchair fencing.
Since his debut three years ago in Tokyo, he’s become one of the top athletes in sabre in all of North America.
“We’re kind of on the same level now where I can fence them and it’s a good bout regardless,” said Rousell. “I’m proud of that for myself but I want to be better, not for them but for myself.”
Rousell first popped up on Doug Brecht’s radar two decades ago with the Asquith Garde Fencing Academy.
He was a determined seven-year-old boy born with cerebral palsy and a shortened right leg, who competed for years against able-bodied athletes in the province.
“He’s the best in the western hemisphere,” said Brecht. “That’s not bragging or anything, it’s just a statement of fact. Nobody can touch him.”
“All of those years of able-bodied fencing with a lack of mobility caused him to develop a very fast reaction hand.”
Switching to para sport in 2018, Rousell has since become an Americas champion in both sabre and epee thanks, in part, to a better understanding of his limitations and not pushing his body to the brink of collapse.
Vying to be one of the best wheechair fencers in the world, it will just be a matter of how he’ll be able to execute on the Grand Palais stage in Paris.
“It’s not so much for fame or glory for me,” said Rousell. “It’s just that I get to compete against the best in the world, on the world stage and everybody gets to see it.”
Rousell will begin the wheelchair fencing tournament in Paris on Sept. 3 with his first bouts in the sabre category.