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Todd reflects on journey to Paralympic Games

Paralympian, Andrew Todd, shared his message of cherishing the journey with local high school students.

THUNDER BAY - A local Paralympic bronze medalist said winning a medal for Canada was the final step in a journey that he will always cherish.

Andrew Todd competed in the 2016 Paralympic Summer Games in Rio where he captured a bronze medal in mixed coxed four rowing.

On Tuesday, Todd returned to Sir Winston Churchill C.V.I. where he graduated from in 2007 to speak with a grade 12 Theory of Knowledge class in the IB program.

“It’s pretty great to be able to come back and not only talk to a class but a class that I had been a part of close to ten years ago in a city that I grew up in,” Todd said.

“To be able to share my experiences and see the seat that I was sitting in before and hopefully I was able to pass something on to them.”

Todd’s message was certainly not lost on the students, who hung onto every word of his story of training for Rio and overcoming his horrific accident.

“I think experiencing such a physical set back in terms of his accident and how he worked toward improvement was really inspiring to me,” said Natasha Azad, a Grade 12 student at Churchill High School.

“And seeing the mental strength to overcome these setbacks and grow from them.”

In 2013, while training on a bicycle for a berth on the Canadian Men’s lightweight fours team, Todd was struck by a school bus that ran a stop sign. His right leg and pelvis were severely injured and for the next several years he was in and out of surgery.

“It was a long process, but I think that I used rowing as a tool as much as a motivation to get me through that,” Todd said. “If I didn’t have rowing, I wouldn’t have made the extent of recovery that I made and I really owe that to the sport.”

For the last three years, Todd was training nearly every day to prepare for the Rio games. He said that his accident never filled him with doubt and he knew he would one day be back on the water.

“For me, even from day one, it was the belief that I wanted to get back into the boat, I needed to get back into a boat,” he said. “I don’t think I fully accepted that it had happened until I was able to win a medal for Canada.”

Now that he has won that medal for Canada, Todd is able to reflect on the entire journey that brought him to the podium.

“It was really neat to be part of something that was really all of Canada,” he said. “That was really special. We’re all there to try and achieve a common goal. To represent Canada to the best of our abilities and it’s really neat to share that with people who are not just part of your own sport.”

For Todd, going from recovery to Rio was a journey he will never forget. And that is the message he wanted to leave with the students sitting in the same classroom that he once did in his former high school.

“I spoke a lot about really enjoying and cherishing the process and the journey rather than just the outcome,” he said.

“That is something I really do stand by and believe in. I feel that you kind of miss the point of that experience if you are just focused on one particular outcome. That’s something I try to take into all aspects of my life.”

And it was a message that was not lost on Azad and her fellow classmates.

“I found it really meaningful to see somebody in a position of success and they’ve come through a program that we had been through and used those experiences that we are currently experiencing to further themselves and seeing the progressing and personal growth that one experiences,” Azad said.  



Doug Diaczuk

About the Author: Doug Diaczuk

Doug Diaczuk is a reporter and award-winning author from Thunder Bay. He has a master’s degree in English from Lakehead University
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