Eric Rodrigues

Eric Rodrigues became a quadriplegic following a snowboarding accident in Spain in 2009. While recovering at a rehabilitation centre in Ontario, he was introduced to wheelchair rugby through watching the Murderball documentary. The film caught his eye and on instinct, he decided to seek out the Ontario Para Network, in order to pursue the sport.

At first, wheelchair rugby was an opportunity for Rodrigues to finally play a contact team sport again. However, as he became more and more engrossed in the sport, he began to have aspirations of one day representing Canada on the international stage. Not one to shy away from a challenge, he took it on and managed to become a member of the National team program in 2017. 

From there, he would go on to don the maple leaf and represent Canada at several major competitions in 2018, including the Canada Cup and the World Championships. In 2019, he was a member of Team Canada at the Parapan American Games that won silver. He then helped Canada to a berth in the Tokyo Paralympics at its last-chance Games qualifier in 2020. In Tokyo, the team placed fifth. In his Paralympic debut he averaged 20 minutes per game, the most among first-time Paralympians on Team Canada.