A pair of athletes from Canada’s national Para ice hockey team were on hand Tuesday to open what’s being billed as the first fully-accessible outdoor rink in Manitoba at the Dakota Community Centre.
Greg Westlake, who most recently won a silver medal at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in March, spoke at the opening of the new Jumpstart Community Rink, designed with sledge hockey in mind. His teammate Dominic Cozzolino was also present.
The rink features Plexiglas inserts in the player and penalty boxes to allow for visibility while on a sledge, as well as gates sized for accessibility.
“The rink for me was always a place where I could go and feel safe and feel comfortable,” said Westlake. “And it didn’t matter whether I was learning to skate when I was three years old on my artificial feet, or when I was 15 and made the transition over to sledge hockey, and wanted to represent my country.”
Westlake said he faced barriers getting into sledge hockey while the sport was relatively unknown, and called the new rink a game changer.
“If I was going to an outdoor rink to play – because that’s the best, there’s nothing more Canadian than an outdoor rink – but I would have had to crawl, from that door, all the way out here,” he said.
Kids and adults alike could be seen sliding across the rink on sledges at the opening event. In the summer, it can be transformed into four regulation sized beach volleyball courts.
The rink was built at a cost of $680,000, with $250,000 of funding coming from Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities. All three levels of government also contributed, along with private donors.
