At just 17, Zak Madell gained national recognition when he was recruited for team Canada’s wheelchair rugby team. One year later, in 2012, he won a silver medal at his first of four Paralympic Games.Â
Madell discovered para sports in his recovery from a life-altering event. When he was 10, he contracted a staph infection that resulted in the amputation of his legs and fingers.Â
Currently fresh off a sixth-place finish at the Paris Paralympic Games, Madell speaks about his career and work as a community advocate.
Alyssa Hassett: Can you share a bit about your journey to becoming a Paralympian and what inspired you to pursue competitive sports?
Zak Madell: I think competitive sports have just kind of always been a part of my life, even when I was a kid before I had my amputations at 10 years old due to a staph infection that I contracted. I grew up playing able-bodied sports. And once I got sick, I had the amputations. There was a bit of a recovery process and some time in the hospital, but once I had recovered enough to get involved in sports again, it was my family that realized that it made sense to have some continuity in my life. Sport was a big part of my life beforehand, so it only made sense to get involved in sports again as soon as possible afterwards.
As a way to rebuild the body and even to rehabilitate the mind, I started sledge hockey probably a year and a half or two years after having my amputations done. Holding on to a hockey stick without fingers was a bit of a challenge, obviously, and holding on to two hockey sticks in sledge hockey was even more difficult. So a lot of duct tape was involved. I played sledge for a few years before discovering wheelchair basketball, and then that’s kind of when I first had my dreams of becoming a Paralympic athlete. But then a few years later, in 2011, I discovered wheelchair rugby, and in March of 2011 at Team Canada tryouts, I was selected for the first time to make the national team, that was the day before my 17th birthday. And a year and a half later, I was at my first Paralympic Games in London for wheelchair rugby instead of wheelchair basketball. So same dream kind of accomplished, but in a little bit of a different route.
How has participating in sports influenced your life beyond the physical aspect?
I think that’s why I’m trying to get more people involved. There are so many more benefits than just the physical. I’m always going to try and pursue some sort of physical activity, just for the mental health more than anything, but also the social side of it. I mean, we have a super supportive, tight-knit community in wheelchair rugby, where you can learn so much more than just the on-court tactics and technical stuff. I mean, you can learn life skills from other people with similar lived experiences or similar disabilities to yourself and just learning, teaching others how to live with a disability, little tips and tricks from people who have been doing a little bit longer. So it’s kind of cool to see how the community supports one another in so many different ways.
And what challenges have you faced as an athlete with a disability, and how have you overcome them?
I think one of the biggest obstacles, the couple of them that I’ll give you being from a small community. Okotoks isn’t big enough to have its own wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby or sledge hockey team. Fortunately, we’re close enough to Calgary, where all of those are available. But for people in rural communities, I think that can be a really tough one. I was very fortunate that my mom was willing to drive me in and out of the city two, three, four days a week, early on for basketball and then with sledge. Or two, three days a week for rugby, and then in town for high-performance training sessions, lifting weights, all that.
Equipment is another big obstacle for people. Wheelchairs in the sporting world, or rather a custom rugby chair these days, probably runs for US$10,000, if not more. And so for somebody who maybe just wants to come and try out a sport and see if they like it, it’s not like you can buy a pair of sneakers to play basketball or cleats for soccer or whatever and go try a new sport. Most people aren’t going to buy a chair to go try one practice. Having the equipment available, even with the clubs spending $8,000, $10,000, or $12,000 to have enough chairs around so that if a new person wants to come out they can hop in and try out, is a rather large obstacle. So we’re fortunate there’s some grants out there to make that an option for clubs in Alberta. We’re able to host some fundraisers to provide some of those. I’m very fortunate that Vesco, the company that builds my rugby chair, is a sponsor of mine, so I don’t pay for my frames. Otherwise, I don’t have just US$10,000 sitting in my pocket to replace a chair if I’ve got a crack or need to replace it for a major tournament.
Can you tell me about your work as a keynote speaker? And why did you decide to do this?
It’s something that I feel is important and a good challenge to kind of get out of my comfort zone. I feel like if we just live comfortably all the time, we’re not really living, we’re just existing. So it’s a good challenge for myself, and I feel like I have a story that is worth sharing, and it would be a shame not to if it can get out there and inspire or motivate others to pursue their dreams or to overcome adversity or to have a positive mindset, whatever it is.
I’ve got a couple of those topics that I focus on, and then just spreading awareness for accessibility. That’s another thing I’m very passionate about. I think we’re very fortunate in Canada to have the level of accessibility that we do, but I think we still have a lot of room for growth. So that’s kind of a passion project of mine and something I’d like to work more and more on as a kind of transition out of the rugby world and into whatever life has in store for me next
And what advice would you give to young athletes with disabilities who are looking to get involved in sports?
Just try it out. I would urge people not to specialize too early in sports. I think that can lead to burnout, especially when, whether it’s able-bodied or para-sport, when parents are pressuring their children to become these great Olympians from the time they’re four years old by the time they’re teenagers, they’re already sick of their sport and they’re not enjoying it. And I think part of becoming great at a sport is having that passion for it and still enjoying it and loving the sport, or you are going to burn out and not want to do it.
I think try a couple of different sports. And sometimes, for an athlete with a disability, you might try one sport and it’s not the best fit for you, or it’s a bit of a challenge with your disability still. So look around. I mean, I tried just about every para-sport there is. I did some hand cycling, I did some sledge hockey, I played some ball, I’ve played tennis — you might not find the best fit or the one that you enjoy most right away, so try a couple of different ones. That’s always my advice.
“If we just live comfortably all the time, we’re not really living, we’re just existing.”
Zak Madell
How do you feel about the visibility of para-sports and mainstream media? What steps do you think need to be taken to improve this awareness?
I think we’re heading in the right direction. Paris, obviously, was some of the best coverage we’ve had for a Paralympics to date. But I think there’s still quite a lot of parity between Paralympic and Olympic coverage, which I would like to see that gap reduced a little bit. And in Paris, I saw more hype around the Paralympics than I ever have, which is super exciting. I think we’re just going to see that increase, and hopefully, we can ride that momentum going into L.A.. Just having broadcast companies like the CBC who are supporting us, we’re super grateful for them. But seeing more and more para-sports on television, and even I think the big thing would be if we see para-sports on TV outside of like a Paralympics or of the Parapan American Games. I think that’s when it’s really going to get the exposure that it needs.
Para-sports are super spectator-friendly. We sold 80,000 plus tickets in Paris, I think, for wheelchair rugby alone. And everyone there seemed to be enjoying themselves. I’ve never met somebody that’s watched a wheelchair rugby match and not enjoyed it. So maybe one day we’ll have a pro league, pro wheelchair rugby, where players from all around the world can come together and play some high-level rugby and get some TV time. So that’s my pipe dream, I think, to see that in my lifetime, hopefully while I’m still playing.
What are your future goals, both in sports and in your efforts to build community and support others?
I don’t know what my goals are in sport moving forward, I’m in a bit of a reevaluation phase. After every Paralympic Games, I have always stepped back and tried to figure out if I’m going to keep going for another four years. Four years seems like a long time when you’re 30 in a contact sport. Not that it’s not doable, I think the mind would be ready to go for another four, whether the body can manage another four is another story.
But outside of that, is getting involved in the the world of accessibility and trying to make Canada, Calgary, or wherever I end up living a little bit more accessible, and I think the dream is to have a foundation or charity of some sort where any money raised can go towards making some local businesses or buildings a bit more accessible. I know there are some buildings still in Calgary that historically are protected or necessarily don’t have to be accessible because they’re old enough. But I think if there was a charity organization that had some money available to make buildings a little bit more accessible and user-friendly for everybody, that’s something I’d like to do at some point in my life. I’m still in a very early planning, brainstorming, and dreaming phase, but I think making Canada a little more accessible would be one of my future goals.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.