Quick facts

Birthdate

December 8, 1988

Hometown

Quebec City, QC

Residence

Quebec City, QC

Sport

Para Nordic Skiing

Wheelchair Basketball

Classification

3.5

Experience

Tokyo 2020

Lima 2019

PyeongChang 2018

Toronto 2015

Santiago 2023

Cindy Ouellet is one of the big stars on the women’s national wheelchair basketball team. She has competed at four Paralympic Games and five Parapan Am Games in the sport as well as a winter Paralympics in Para nordic skiing.

At the 2019 Parapan Am Games in Lima, she was among the tournament leaders in fouls drawn and free throws made as she helped Canada to gold and a berth in the Tokyo Paralympics.

In Tokyo, she competed at her fourth Paralympic Games in wheelchair basketball and in 2023 at her fourth worlds. Canada was fifth at both events. A few weeks later at the Parapan Ams in Santiago she won silver ranking second in tournament assists.

In 2018 she became one of the world’s few athletes to compete at both a Winter and Summer Paralympic Games when she made her debut in PyeongChang in Para nordic skiing. A few months later, she helped Canada to fifth spot at the wheelchair basketball world championships in Hamburg.

She is also working hard to make her mark for people with disabilities off the field of play as well. The Team Canada member graduated in exercise science, earned a Masters in exercise physiology, and played wheelchair basketball for the University of Alabama. She received an academic scholarship and is currently studying for a doctorate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in bio-medical engineering. Her ambition is to do research for prostheses for amputees and work in neuromuscular technology and nanotechnology.

Career Highlights

Gold medal at 2019 Parapan American Games…  Silver medals at 2007, 2011, 2015, 2023 Parapan American Games… Gold at 2014 world championships in Toronto… 2008, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020 Paralympic Games… Female Athlete of the Year award in 2012, 2016 and 2017 by Wheelchair Basketball Canada

Personal

Diagnosed with bone cancer at age 12…Went through 28 chemotherapy cycles… Trained and competed in cross-fit in her wheelchair…During her career she has dislocated both shoulders and broken her hand, fingers and skull.