Thirteen Para athletes awarded with 2021 Petro-Canada FACE grants

Thrower Charlotte Bolton and paddler Brianna Hennessy, both set to compete at their first Paralympic Games in Tokyo this month, are among 13 Para athletes recently announced as 2021 Petro-Canada FACE™ grant recipients. Each athlete along with their coach will receive $10,000 in funding for the next year. 

The Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence (FACE™) grants are awarded to up-and-coming athletes with goals of representing Canada at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The funds – of which $5,000 goes to the athlete and $5,000 to their coach – are used for training, equipment, coach education, and competition travel expenses.

Since 1988, more than 3,000 Canadian athletes and their coaches have been buoyed with over $12 million in financial support.
Bolton is receiving the grant for a second straight year with her coach Richard Parkinson. She was discovered at a 2017 Paralympian Search event hosted by the Canadian Paralympic Committee in Toronto. The 18-year-old has had a rapid rise in her sport, and is set to make her Paralympic debut in the T41 shot put and discus in Tokyo.  

Hennessy earned a berth for her first Paralympic Games with a fourth-place finish in the women’s VL2 200m at a World Cup event in Hungary held in May 2021. Her qualification for Tokyo comes less than two years after she took up the sport of Para canoe with her coach Joel Hazzan.

Para swimmers Clémence Paré and Jacob Brayshaw are also second-year recipients. They made their multi-sport Games debuts at the Lima 2019 Parapan Am Games, competing as Next Gen swimmers. 

This year’s class of FACE™ recipients from across Canada represent 43 different summer and winter sports in both individual and team events totalling 55 athletes and coaches.

Past FACE™ recipients on the Tokyo 2020 Canadian Paralympic Team include badminton player Olivia Meier, paddler Andrea Nelson, boccia player Danik Allard, and swimmers Nicholas Bennett and Nikita Ens.

Here are the Para athletes named as 2021 FACE™ grant recipients:

Charlotte Bolton, Para athletics, Tillsonburg, Ont.
Jacob Brayshaw, Para swimming, Vernon, B.C. 
Katie Combaluzier, Para alpine skiing, Toronto
Lisa DeJong, Para snowboard, Biggar, Sask.
Maxime Drolet-Gauthier, wheelchair rugby, Montreal
Brianna Hennessy, Para canoe, Ottawa
Jean-Françcois Huneault, Para ice hockey, St-Eustache, Que.
Austin MacLellan, wheelchair basketball, Fredericton
Clémence Paré, Para swimming, Boucherville, Que.
Christina Picton, Para nordic skiing, Fonthill, Ont.
Hayley Redmond, boccia, St. John’s, N.L.
Sierra Roth, Para rowing, Victoria
Abbey Van Duzer, Para alpine skiing, Guelph, Ont.