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Arinn Young headed to Paralympic Games in 2020

Wheelchair basketball Canada team co-captain Arinn Young has a full year ahead of her, including preparing for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Arinn Young
Paralympian and team co-captain Arinn Young won the gold medal at the Parapan Am games in Lima, Peru Aug. 30 with Team Canada in wheelchair basketball. With the victory Team Canada qualified for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Wheelchair basketball Canada team co-captain Arinn Young has a full year ahead of her, including preparing for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

The 23-year-old Legal native has just come off a gold medal win at the Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru held Aug. 23 to Sept. 1., beating the U.S. team in a very close final Aug. 30 by only three points, 67-64.

To qualify for the Paralympics in Tokyo, the Canadian team had to make it to the gold medal game, as only the top two teams in the region are awarded spots for 2020. They faced Brazil in the semifinal in a very high-stakes game, coming out with a 61-40 win over the South American team.

“It was a little nerve-wracking. It’s a big deal going to the Paralympics, and Canada is well known for dominating at the majors. Going into that game, we were a little nervous, but we knew what we had to do, and that was to qualify and get the job done.

“We’ve always had a lot of run-ins with Brazil and we never seem to play our best basketball against them. We came out really hard and stuck it to them in the second half and then we started to get the lead going,” said Young.

As for what winning the game meant, Young explained that it took a while to shift gears mentally and realize what had happened, that a win was not just a win that day.

“When that buzzer went, I didn’t realize we had qualified. I was so focused on the game and winning it. When that final buzzer went off, I couldn’t believe it. It’s like a dream come true to finally get that ticket you needed.”

At the previous Parapan Am games in 2015 in Toronto, Canada also faced the U.S. in the finals but lost. Young was on the team four years ago too, and this game was a resurrection of faith in the team’s capabilities moving forward into the Paralympic season.

“We knew it was going to be a really hard game against the States. They’re so good at their rotations on defence and their shooting is unbelievable. … We came out not exactly how we wanted to in the first quarter but we got back into rhythm. Even though we were down, we just had so much faith in each other, we knew we were going to pull it out.

“It’s been a long time coming. It felt so good beating the U.S.,” said Young.

A big part of the team’s success this year has been the work they did on and off the court to strengthen their relationships with one another, and the team’s chemistry. After coming in fifth at the 2018 world championships, some changes had to be made if they wanted to continue the legacy of Canada’s dominance in the sport.

“We needed to get our act together … Everyone just knew that we had to buy into each other and the process, and we did. The group of girls this year is completely different. I consider them my family.”

Young is currently in her final year studying kinesiology at the University of Alabama. There, she plays on another winning team, the 2019 national champions and she plans on continuing that streak into this year too. Coming into the championships as the underdog, the Alabama team won the final against University of Arlington, Texas in overtime, a feeling which Young described as unbelievable.

The training schedule moving forward will be a little tricky and tiring, with Young splitting her time between Team Canada and Alabama, but her mentality is to “grind it out.” She’ll be flying in for about a week in October, and twice more in the new year.

“I know my daughter. She lives, breathes, sleeps basketball,” said mom Colleen Young, who owns The Flower Shoppe in Westlock.

“I’m your typical hockey parent, and I’m no different at basketball,” joked Colleen, who’s been in the stands with her husband Rick at games in Europe, China, Brazil, Peru, and is now looking forward to Japan.

To hear Arinn describe anything as fun, it means it was a battle. The conversation was around basketball, focused and determined. It was Colleen who supplemented the story with other parts of Arinn’s life, especially her long-distance boyfriend.

Like Colleen said, if something isn’t basketball-related, Arinn won’t have anything to do with it. Thankfully, Gijs Even, her boyfriend, is also a Paralympian in wheelchair basketball. They met at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, where Even was playing for the Netherlands.

“They fully support each other, they watch each other’s games, they give each other advice,” said Colleen. “The long-distance thing can work because their goals are the same.”

There’s time for romance, but only if it doesn’t interfere with practice.

Arinn will be graduating from Alabama in May 2020 and is hoping to be picked up by one of the European teams in Germany or Spain. Although the road ahead looks further and further away from her native Alberta, Arinn’s thoughts are still set on the Legal community.

“I couldn’t have done a lot of what I do without the support of everyone back home. I’m just really thankful for everyone.”

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