For this holiday season, we will be celebrating some of our favourite sport memories from throughout the year. Canada’s Para athletes achieved a lot in 2019, and we will be remembering one performance each day for 12 days.
He didn’t get the same attention as Bianca Andreescu, Denis Shapovalov or Félix Auger-Aliassime but Rob Shaw made Canadian tennis history too in 2019 by becoming the first player, stand-up or wheelchair, to win a multi-sport Games medal in singles.
It happened at the 2019 Parapan American Games this past August in Lima. Shaw defeated world No. 2 David Wagner of USA, known as one of the best to ever play the game, for the gold medal 6-1, 6-3 in the quad singles tournament.
It was his first win in eight career matches against Wagner.
Shaw, ranked ninth in the world, also becomes the first quad tennis champion at a Parapan Am Games, with the classification making its debut in Lima. It was Shaw’s first appearance at a multi-sport Games.
“There’s just a really big tennis wave right now going through Canada,’’ said Shaw, 30, from North Bay, Ont., and now residing in Kelowna, B.C. “It’s definitely the biggest win so far of my career.’’
While being one of the best in the world in wheelchair tennis, Shaw is also completing his PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus in Kelowna. In addition, he took some time earlier this month to be the athlete ambassador at the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Paralympian Search held in Kelowna.
Shaw played tennis and coached the sport prior to his accident at age 21. He tried several sports after his injury but eventually returned to his first love.
Also read:
12 days of Triumph: Sandrine Hamel
12 days of Triumph: women's wheelchair basketball team
12 days of Triumph: Brent Lakatos
12 days of Triumph: Brian McKeever
