Matteo
Pellizzari

Matteo Pellizzari, who turned 18 in January 2025, is one of Canada’s brightest young prospects in Para ice hockey.

He was named to Team Canada for the last two International Para Hockey Cups in Ostrava, Czech Republic and is now working towards a berth on the 2025 world championships team and ultimately the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games squad.

Pellizzari was born with bilateral fibular hemimelia, which is the absence of the fibula bone in the lower legs. Due to this, his feet were amputated when he was a year old. He was fitted with prosthetics and started walking at one and a half.

He has participated in many sports and activities, including swimming, volleyball, golf, track and field, downhill and cross-country skiing, martial arts, and rock climbing.

Off the ice, Pellizzari has acted in movies and plays, done public speaking on behalf of the War Amps as well as guest speaking at university courses at the University of British Columbia, Langara College, and British Columbia Institute of Technology.

He has been on the TV news, and was even a co-emcee at a fundraising gala for the Orthopaedic Department of BC Children’s Hospital.

National team veteran Adam Dixon and six-time Paralympian and assistant national team coach Greg Westlake have been among his mentors with Team Canada.