The 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony happens on August 28, 2024 and a local athlete is ready to make her community proud. Jolan Wong, mother of two plays for team Canada in Women’s Sitting Volleyball. Wong was born in Alberta and has been living in Pembroke for the past 11 years.
She competed at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympic Games and the last two world championships earning silver in 2022. At the 2019 Parapan American Games she was named Best Receiver as Canada won the bronze medal. She was named “Best Libero” at the World ParaVolley final Paralympic qualification tournament in Halifax in 2020.
We sat down with Wong to talk about her journey and how she is feeling about the competition. She tells myFM what their schedule looks like.
Wong played a variety of sports at a younger age but has always had a passion for volleyball. At the age of 13 Wong lost her right leg to bone cancer. In her final year of high school at J.R. Robson in Vermillion, AB her standing volleyball coach reached out to Volleyball Canada to see if she would be eligible to try out for the sitting volleyball team. The women’s sitting volleyball program was just beginning in Canada. She tried out for the squad, fell in love with the sport and has played ever since. She explains that this isn’t her first rodeo and they know what to do.
Jolan is a mother of two and will be traveling with her entire family. She talks about one thing that is new to the Olympics and how much she appreciates it.
The highly anticipated match schedule for the sitting volleyball competition at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games promising intense action and fierce competition is from August 29 to September 7th. Follow Jolan on all her social media platforms: @cdnparalympics, @jolan_wong and @canadawsittingvb.
(Written by: Emma Butler)
