Photo Rights: Canadian Paralympic Committee
The 2024 Paralympics open Wednesday in Paris and St. Thomas is well represented with goalball hero Emme Reinke.
Her three goals powered Canada to an upset 4-3 win over the U.S. at the Parapan Am Games in Chile to secure a berth in the Paralympics.
She was the team’s leading scorer with 25 goals in Chile.
Reinke was also Canada’s leading scorer at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
She spoke with myFM about the competition they face in the 2024 Games.
Goalball was invented in 1946 in an effort to rehabilitate veterans with a visual impairment who returned from World War II.
In 1976, it was introduced to the world at the Paralympic Games in Toronto and a women’s tournament was added at the 1984 Paralympic Games.
Reinke first played the game while in Grade 9 at the W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind in Brantford.
She has been a member of Team Ontario’s women’s goalball team since 2014 and the Canadian national team since 2017.
In preparation for the 2024 Paralympics, Reinke and the Canadian goalball team trained in Sweden, Japan and Brazil this summer.
She says it was an opportunity to fine-tune their strategy in advance of the Paris Games.
She adds they have had to tweak their game for the faster teams like China and Japan.
The Canadian Women’s Goalball team was named the winner of the 2023 People’s Choice Award for Most Trending Moment of the Year through the Canadian Sport Awards for their golden victory at the 2023 Parapan American Games.
Reinke notes following the Paris Games, the team is likely to undergo a major rebuild.
For the 2024 Games, Canada is in a group with France, Japan and Korea. Their opening game is Thursday morning against France.
You can follow Reinke through the Games on her Facebook page, Emma’s Road to Paris 2024.
