Photos: canoephotography.com/Balint Vekassy (ICF)
University of Waterloo's Recreation and Leisure Studies department is proud to present its annual Therapeutic Recreation Awareness Week. To celebrate, three exciting events will be taking place on campus and you are invited to participate!
Come out to the Student Life Centre's Great Hall and try out your wheelchair skills on an exciting obstacle course. Will you be able to get the best time for your faculty?
Come cheer on our Warrior Men's Basketball team in the Physical Activities Complex! The Twin City Spinners wheelchair basketball team will be performing during half-time, showing off their amazing talent.
Para Canoe Athlete, Christine Selinger, will be speaking about her experiences with Therapeutic Recreation as well as her challenges and triumphs becoming a paralympic athlete. Please join us in the Sun Life Auditorium (LHS 1621). Below is a short biography about Christine.
Christine Selinger (pictured left in red, and above) was born and raised in Regina, SK. She convocated from the University of Regina with a Bachelor's degree in Science (Mathematics) and a Bachelor's degree in Education (Secondary) in June of 2011.
Though she hopes to one day be a high school Mathematics and English teacher, Christine has been very good at keeping herself busy. She is very active in both community and student organizations as well as being a competitive athlete in multiple sports. She also has a keen sense of adventure that has her exploring the world’s many nooks and crannies as she is constantly looking for new places to explore.
In 2010, after an expedition name “Nootka No Limits”, Christine became the first paraplegic to traverse British Columbia’s Nootka Trail. She completed this less than four years after a debilitating rappelling incident in Savona, BC. Christine was with her older sister, Chelsea, when she plummeted off a rock face known to climbers in the area as “The Beach”. Christine suffered a burst fracture to her L1 vertebrae, which also caused a severe spinal cord injury. Though she has maintained some movement in her right leg, Christine will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
Although her life was forever altered by the events of December 18, 2006, Christine has never let her disability get in the way of pursuing her dreams. In fact, she has made the very best of her situation and has found ways to inspire others to see the abilities of each individual instead of the disabilities. As she is often found saying, “a disability is not an inability” and it is obvious that Christine lives out this motto every day.
Not only did 2010 mark the first of Christine’s many “No Limits” adventures, but it also marked the start of a promising career as a canoe and kayak competitor. Christine made the Canadian National Canoe and Kayak team as a ParaCanoe athlete in July of 2010, and was thus given the opportunity to compete for Canada at the ICF Sprint Canoe World Championships in Poznan, Poland. There Christine won both a Gold Medal (Women’s V1 LTA, TA, A 200m) and a Silver Medal (Women’s K1 TA 200m). Christine competed for Canada at the 2011 ICF Sprint World Championships as well, again coming home with a gold medal in the Women’s V1 (LTA) and a second place finish in the Women’s K1 (TA) events.
Christine was beyond delighted to hear the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announce in 2010 that ParaCanoe would be added to the list of sports that will compete at the 2016 Paralympics in Brazil, thus giving Christine the opportunity to one day represent her country at an Olympic level.
Christine is hopeful that her next few years will be just as thrilling as the last have been – and she already has plans underway to make sure this happens.
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Video of Christine in action at 2011 World Championships (courtesy of CanoeKayak Canada) |
Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies
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University of Waterloo
200 University Ave. W.
Waterloo ON N2L 3G1
519.888.4567 ext. 33530
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