Birthdate

Sport(s)

Sitting Volleyball

Hometown

White Rock, BC

Classification

Danielle Ellis wears number three and plays the position of attacker for the Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team. She’s captain of the team and was voted February’s 2020 Allianz Athlete of the Month after leading Team Canada to a gold win at the World ParaVolley final Paralympic qualification tournament in Halifax, earning a berth for the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. She was also named the tournament’s “Most Outstanding Player.”

Ellis was a member of the team from 2009 – 2012. After a few years away, Ellis returned to the Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team in the fall of 2015 and has remained a member since. She attended the 2019 Parapan Am Games, 2018 and 2010 world championships, 2016 Paralympic Games, 2016 Intercontinental Cup and 2011 Parapan Am zone qualifier. 

Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team made history at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, as it marked the first time a Canadian sitting volleyball team competed at a Paralympic Games

Ellis, who lost her right leg below the knee due to cancer as a newborn, grew up with a love for sports and an appetite for competition. Although heavily involved in sport her whole life, she wasn’t aware of sitting volleyball or Paralympic sport until age 16. It was at a Trinity Western standing volleyball camp in 2007 that she was informed of the sport. At the time there was no Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team, so she was instead put in contact with the United States’ women’s sitting volleyball coach Mike Hulett. It just so happened that Hulett had recently heard Canada was in fact starting up a team. He put Ellis in contact with the right person and just one year later, in 2008, Ellis was attending Canada’s first women’s training camp for sitting volleyball. 

After falling short in qualifying for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Ellis decided to leave the team and focus on her studies of becoming a paramedic at Justice Institute of BC, in New Westminster, BC. She currently works in the dispatch centre for BC Ambulance in Langley.  

sitting-volleyball

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

February 2020 Allianz Athlete of the Month… Gold medal at the 2020 World ParaVolley final Paralympic qualification tournament for the 2020 Paralympics… Named “Most Outstanding Player” of the 2020 World ParaVolley qualifier tournament… 2019 - present team captain… Bronze medal at the 2019 Parapan Am games… 2018 and 2010 world championships… 2016 Paralympics… 2016 Intercontinental Cup… Bronze medal at the 2011 Parapan Am zone qualifier… 2009-2012, 2015- present Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team member…

PERSONAL

Lives in Langley, BC… Currently works in the dispatch centre for BC Ambulance in Langley… Endur Apparel ambassador… Loves yoga, running and reading on the patio… Favourite food is French food… Attended Justice Institute of BC… Attended Semiahoo Secondary School… Participated in gymnastics, soccer, baseball, volleyball as a youngster… Born to parents heavily involved in sport… Lost her right leg to cancer as a new born… 

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

  • 2019 Parapan Am Games – 3rd 
  • 2018 World Championships – 7th 
  • 2016 Paralympic Games – 7th
  • 2010 World Championships – 12th   
Year Type
Host City
Medals
2020 Summer
Tokyo, Japan
2019 Parapan am Games
Lima, Peru
1 bronze medals

1 bronze medals

2016 Summer
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil