Meet the Council Members
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Erica Gavel
Chair
Erica Gavel has been passionate about basketball ever since she can remember. A star on the rise, she was a highly sought-after recruit coming out of high school and went on the play for the University of Saskatchewan women’s basketball program. However, her career was cut short after a serious knee injury forced Gavel to the sidelines.
Since taking up wheelchair basketball in 2012, she has fast tracked her way to competing for her home province and earning an athletic scholarship to the University of Alabama.
Gavel ultimately set her sights on representing Team Canada at the Paralympic Games, which she achieved in 2016. She first took a step in that direction in 2014 after seizing a full-time roster spot on the Senior Women’s National Team.
Jeremy Hall
Vice-Chair
When Jeremy Hall and his racing partner Jessye Brockway finished third at the last Paralympic qualification regatta in Italy in early June, they thought their dream to compete in Tokyo had evaporated, just missing out the result they needed to qualify.
But three weeks later Canada was allocated a bipartite spot for the PR2 mixed doubles sculls event, which meant Hall and Brockway had indeed earned a ticket to their first Games.
Hall competes under the PR2 classification, which is for athletes with leg injuries who can’t use the traditional sliding seats. PR2 boats have fixed seats and are propelled only by the athlete’s trunk and arms.
In 2019, Hall earned a silver medal at the world rowing championships in Bulgaria in men’s singles sculls despite only having competed since 2017.
Men’s PR2 singles sculls, however, is not a Paralympic event. The only PR2 rowing event open to Hall is mixed double sculls. So, Hall launched a campaign to find a partner for his boat and landed a talented partner in Brockway. In 2019, Hall raced with Brockway of Mill Bay, B.C., at the worlds and they placed a promising 11th.
Hall started rowing in 2017 at the Edmonton Rowing Club then moved to Vernon to train under Martin George. He joined the national team in January 2018 and eventually moved to the national team training centre in Victoria.
In his first race on the world stage in 2018 he won a bonze medal in singles sculls at an international regatta in Italy.
Ina Forrest
Member
Ina Forrest has reached the podium in all four of her Paralympic Games appearances so far. She was a member of Canada’s gold medal winning team in 2010 and 2014 then added a bronze in 2018 in PyeongChang and 2022 in Beijing.
She has competed at 14 straight wheelchair curling world championships (starting in 2007), which includes three world titles and two silver medals. Most recently, Canada was second at the 2023 world championships.
Forrest, one of the world’s most decorated wheelchair curlers, was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame at a banquet during Brier week in Ottawa in February 2016.
She began curling in 2004 after an avid local wheelchair curler approached her while shopping and suggested she give it a try. Two weeks later she was hooked. As a member of the British Columbia wheelchair curling team, she won silver at the 2004 and 2005 Canadian National Wheelchair Curling Championships.
In 2006, she was named to the national team. Canada finished fourth at both the 2007 and 2008 World Wheelchair Curling Championships before taking the gold in 2009. A year later, Forrest made her Paralympic debut for Canada in her home province at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.
Forrest recalls, “I will always remember when I received my first Team Canada jacket and the pride I felt to be representing Canada. Wearing the maple leaf and hearing the Canadian national anthem in competition is so much more emotionally charged than I ever anticipated. It is a swelling in your chest that threatens to bring on tears.”
A member of the Vernon Curling Club, Forrest thinks she is well suited as third because she likes to throw hits. Forrest believes, “curling requires a very steady mental focus and the perfect touch for delivering just the right weight for shots.”
Tyler McGregor
Member
A leader on Canada’s national Para ice hockey team for many years now, Tyler McGregor was named captain of the squad in 2019.
At the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, McGregor was an alternate captain as Canada won the silver medal. He was third in scoring in PyeongChang, with eight goals and five assists in five games.
He’s been Canada’s top scorer at the last two world championships in 2019 and 2021, where Canada also finished in second place. He was second overall with 13 points in 2019, tabulating six goals and seven assists, and sixth overall in 2021 with 11 points.
At the 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Championships in Gangneung, South Korea, McGregor scored two goals in 13 seconds in the final, as Canada defeated arch-rivals USA 4-1 to win a record fourth world title. McGregor was third in tournament scoring and tied for most goals with 12 goals. He also had five assists for 17 points.
McGregor established himself on Canada’s national Para ice hockey team at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. He earned three assists in five games and helped Canada to a 4-1 overall record and the bronze medal.
The youngest member of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2013 world championships, McGregor has fast tracked to success in the sport.
At age 15, he broke his leg in his 2009 season opener. An OHL prospect at the time, he underwent surgery but developed a growth behind his leg. He was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, a form of soft-tissue cancer that originates in the bone. His leg was amputated on the same day as the 2010 OHL Draft.
McGregor realized quickly that he wanted to get back into hockey and started playing again with a standing amputee team. However he switched to Para ice hockey in 2011 and his determination led him to the national team, and now to being one of the very best in the game.
He made his national team debut at age 18 at the 2012 World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Calgary, earning a goal and two assists as Canada won the silver medal. Less than a year later, McGregor helped Canada to gold at the world championships.
Amy Burk
Member
Amy Burk has been a member of Canada’s national women’s goalball team for many years. She has attended the 2020, 2016, 2012 and 2008 Paralympic Games, 2011, 2015, 2019, 2023 IBSA World Championships, and the 2011, 2015, 2019, 2023 Parapan Am Games. She has been nominated for MVP at several international championships.
In November 2023, Burk and her teammates won the gold medal at the Parapan American Games in Santiago to earn a berth for the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Born with Albinism and a visual impairment, Burke grew up with a love for competition. She played basketball in elementary school and was introduced to goalball at age 12 by her itinerant teacher, who sat on the board of directors for recreational sports for PEI. Burk’s teacher gave the PEI goalball coach her name, who then reached out to her, paying her a visit at her school and inviting her to come try the sport of goalball with the provincial team.
Upon her first introduction to goalball, Burk was jaw dropped by the fact that grown women were voluntarily flinging themselves in front of and getting hit by a ball. Still, she gave it a try, but in the end decided it wasn’t for her.
In 2004, one year later, Burk decided to call the PEI goalball coach and ask if she could give the sport another try. He agreed, and this time she immediately fell in love with the goalball, joining the PEI provincial team.
Burk has been nominated several times for the PEI “Female Athlete of the Year Award,” most recently for 2019.
In 2008, Burk moved to Ottawa and began playing goalball for Team Ontario.
Mike Whitehead
Member
Before his spinal cord injury, Mike Whitehead was an avid multi-sport athlete who enjoyed basketball, volleyball, hockey, soccer, and badminton. He was introduced to wheelchair rugby when his future teammates, including David Willsie, came to visit him at the Parkwood Rehabilitation Hospital in London, Ontario. He quickly became hooked on the contact and the level of competition and made the national team, just one year after his injury.
He has been a mainstay on Team Canada competing in the last five Paralympic Games (2 silvers & 1 bronze), six World Championships (1 gold, 1 silver & 2 bronze) and two Parapan Am Games (1 gold, 1 silver). He has taken on a mentorship role with his younger teammates in recent years, by sharing his experiences and knowledge of the sport.
Whitehead has also started coaching. He coached Canada’s wheelchair rugby team at the Toronto Invictus Games and at the 2021 Low-Point Tournament in Switzerland. He is an accomplished public speaker having presented at the notable TEDxBeaconStreet event in Boston.
At the 2019 Parapan American Games where Canada won silver, he was ranked among the top-10 in the tournament in steals.
Abi Tripp
Member
At the London 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, Abi Tripp claimed a bronze medal in the 4×100-m freestyle relay 34 points and reached one individual final, placing fifth in the 100-m breaststroke SB7.
In 2018, at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Tripp brought home bronze in the S8 50-m freestyle. A few months later at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships, Tripp finished fourth in the 200-m individual medley SM8 and fifth in the 100-m backstroke S8.
At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Tripp – just 15 years old at the time – made the finals in the 400-m freestyle (6th), 100-m freestyle (7th) and 200-m individual medley (8th). Her times in the 400 free and 200 IM were also Canadian records.
Tripp started 2016 with a bang. She broke the 13-year-old Canadian record in the women’s SM8 200-m individual medley clocking 2:58.77 at the 2016 Canadian Para Swimming Trials in April 2016. Andrea Cole had held the mark since 2002 at 3:03.04.
Tripp made her major Games debut at the Toronto Parapan American Games in 2015. She finished 4th in the 50-m freestyle, 100-m freestyle, 100-m breaststroke and 200-m IM.
