Heidi Peters joined the Canadian women’s sitting volleyball squad in 2013, one year after the team missed out on qualification for London and essentially disbanded.

“I think literally two athletes didn’t retire. The whole team just, poof, gone,” Peters recalls.

It was, essentially, rock bottom.

Over the past decade, the team has steadily rebuilt itself. The Canadians qualified for Rio 2016 but placed seventh of eight teams. At Tokyo 2020, they played for a medal but wound up in fourth. And at the 2022 world championships, the team advanced one level further but fell short in the gold-medal game.

“I really think Paris is our time to put it all together,” Peters said. “There is something so magical about the biggest stage in the world and I can’t wait.”

The women’s sitting volleyball outfit is one of five teams Canada is sending to the Paris Paralympics, a list that also includes wheelchair rugby (a mixed sport), women’s goalball and men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball.

Each of those teams heads to Paris at different points in their evolution, with different meanings ascribed to potential podium performances.

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