There was a silver lining for Team Canada’s fifth-place showing at the 15th Summer Paralympic Games for wheelchair basketball player Arinn Young.
“I’m so, so glad we finished on a win and I’m so glad we’re still top five in the world,” said the Legal hoopster of Canada’s 4-2 record in Rio de Janeiro.
Canada’s medal hopes were crushed in the 78-60 loss to the Netherlands in the Sept. 13 quarter-finals but the players pulled it together three days later to defeat China 63-52 in the fifth/sixth classification game at the 10-team tournament.
“When we lost it’s like your heart is broken,” Young said. “After that game I think our whole team took over 24 hours to just regroup and for most of that 24 hours we were just all crying.
“Our coach (Bill Johnson) said it’s not over for us and yeah it sucks but we have to finish off with a win and that’s what Canada is going to do,” she recalled. “Our eyes were really puffy from crying and everyone is just really sad and we decided to go eat together instead of going off and doing our own thing and I think when we were eating together we kind of just realized that yeah we’re all heartbroken but we’ve got to finish off on a win because if we don’t it’s going to be even worse for us to try to love basketball again.
“We all stuck together that whole night and in the next couple of days we had off we trained a lot and we just did a lot of things together and when we got back on the court it was like OK our hearts are broken but we can win this game. We’ve worked so hard not to just stop where we were then and there so it was really emotional after that win because it’s all over. It’s just sad.”
Young’s game-high 22 points in the last group A match, 82-49 against the host nation Brazil, lifted Canada into a three-way tie with Germany and Great Britain at 3-1.
Canada was slotted third because of a point differential tiebreaker between the three teams and drew the Netherlands in the crossover playoffs.
Canada also lost to Germany 68-54 in the preliminary round play.
The United Sates beat Germany 62-45 for gold and the Netherlands defeated Great Britain 76-34 for bronze.
The last medal for Canada was bronze in 2004 in Athens.
At the London 2012 Paralympics, the top three teams were Germany, Australia and Netherlands in that order and Canada was sixth at 4-3.
Young shot 11-for-14 from the floor against Brazil during 12:59 minutes of floor time and led Canada in scoring against Argentina with 14 points while going 7-for-14 in field goals while logging 16:17 minutes in the 73-28 blowout.
“I thought I did really good,” Young said of her Paralympics debut. “I was nervous for the first couple of games when I first got on but my teammates know me really well and how to calm me down.
“My first basket at the Paralympics was pretty cool because everyone just started to scream and I saw my parents (Rick and Colleen) holding up their sign and jumping up and down.
“I don’t know how it happened but I was really close to the hoop and I took the shot and it went in and I was like, OK, I got that out of the way.”
Young, 20, relished the opportunity to experience the multi-sport event for athletes with a disability.
“It was just so awesome and I’m so glad I got to partake in the whole thing,” said the high school basketball product of the Morinville Lady Wolves. “I loved Rio. Everyone was just so nice. No matter where you went they loved you and loved Canada. It was so cool.
“I actually got to go out of the village to see my family and I had my Canada stuff on and my mom and dad had their Canada stuff on and people would just walk by and they would start chanting “Can-a-da! Can-a-da!
“You really meant something to them and I thought that was really cool.”
The women’s team missed the opening ceremonies with the tournament opener against Great Britain, 43-36 for Canada, on tap early the next day but the closing ceremony filled Young with national pride.
“When you first walk in everyone is cheering for your country. It was really cool.”
It also helped Young focus on the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
“They did a little show for the next Paralympics at the very end of the closing ceremony so it gets you pumped up for the next four years and I’m really excited,” she said. “I don’t want to look at it like it’s four years because it seems far away but I want to take it year by year. This year it’s more of regroup and start to get our basketball back together for the next four years. After this Paralympics I know what I have to do personally to be better and I can’t wait.”
Young is classified as a 4.5 player on the court, with minimal disabilities and can walk. She switched from standup to wheelchair basketball in 2011 after multiple knee operations.
The youngest hoopster on Canada’s 2014 world championship team competed the next year for the silver medallists at the Parapan American Games in Toronto for qualification at the Paralympics and the fourth-place team at the U25 worlds in Beijing.
Young is also among four players on the Paralympic team who returned from Rio to play wheelchair basketball at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
“We have some time off but I can’t wait to start training again and I know that sounds really weird but they told us to go back to reality and get yourself organized because it’s hard to transition from constantly training to going back to school and having to be a student/athlete again. It’s been a week and a half and I’m already itching to start training again. I’m just really excited for the next four years and what Canada has to offer,” said the kinesiology student, an all-rookie and first all-star team selection as a freshman last season for the third-place finishers at college nationals.
