New Brunswick Champions
Meet the accomplished NB athletes who have competed at either a Parapan American Games or Paralympic Games.
Alexandre Hayward
Para Cycling
Hayward broke his neck in 2012 at age 16 in a AAA hockey game and was considered a candidate for the QMJHL draft that year. While he can use his arms and legs, all four of his limbs are impaired.
After the accident he first turned to wheelchair basketball and played for New Brunswick at the Canada Winter Games and the national junior team for which he was the captain.
Para cycling was a form of cross training for him but got more serious during the pandemic. He eventually emerged on the Para NB and Cycling Canada radars.
At his first time trial in May 2022, Hayward hit the standard he needed to compete nationally. At his first Nationals in June in Edmonton, Hayward surprised the field, winning the time trial and qualifying himself for the World Cup and World Championships in Quebec in August.
Bernard Lapointe
Para Badminton
Bernard Lapointe made a strong Parapan American Games debut in 2019 earning a bronze medal in men’s WH1-2 doubles with then partner Richard Peter.
Lapointe batttled shoulder problems and underwent surgery missing the entire 2022 season.
He has been an avid sportsman his entire life. Even an unfortunate accident 10 years ago which left him an incomplete paraplegic couldn’t keep him from continuing to strive for excellence on the playing field.
Lapointe played badminton in high school but only took up the wheelchair version of the sport in 2016. He was already a nationally ranked wheelchair tennis player and also played Para ice hockey in the winter.
Colin Higgins
Wheelchair Basketball
From his hometown in Rothesay, Higgins joined the wheelchair basketball circuit in 2014, after local classifier Karen Ferguson asked him to come and try out. Instantly, Higgins was hooked on the game and fell in love with the sport because of its complexity – from being aggressive, passive, to the physicality.
After joining the local club in Saint John in 2014, Higgins attended the 2015 Canada Games representing Team New Brunswick.
He earned a spot at the National Academy in 2016, and also earned a spot on Team Canada's roster for the Senior Men's Team in 2017. Since then he has competed at the world championships in 2018 and 2023, at Parapan Am in 2019, and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Danielle Dorris
Para Swimming
Her introduction to swimming came when she was three years old and living in Moncton, N.B. Her father enrolled her in lessons at the local pool. In the summer of 2008, when Dorris was five, her father was transferred to El Paso, Texas.
The idea of swimming in the Paralympics stuck in Dorris’s mind. While in Texas she played soccer and ran track, but it wasn’t until the family returned to Canada in 2012 that Dorris turned her attention back to swimming again. She earned a spot on the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games team where she was Canada’s youngest Paralympic swimmer ever, at age 13. Her highlight in Rio was helping Canada to a fifth-place finish in the 4×100-m medley relay, in Canadian record time. In Tokyo, she won Gold in 50m butterfly.
Danielle DuPlessis
Wheelchair Basketball
​Danielle DuPlessis turned to wheelchair basketball in 2017 after a number of knee injuries in high school and university ruled her out of playing stand-up basketball at a high level.
She played for New Brunswick at the 2019 Canada Winter Games, and trained with the national team through the rest of the year. She was named to the roster for Canada’s feature game against the Netherlands in the spring of 2019.
The Lima 2019 Parapan Am Games was her first appearance at an international tournament for Canada, and her first multi-sport major Games.
Dave Durepos
Wheelchair Basketball
Dave Durepos is originally from Charters Settlement and participated in 5 Paralympic Games with the National men's wheelchair basketball team. He is the first New Brunswick athlete (Olympic or Paralympic) to bring home a gold medal and is one of the most decorated athletes with 3 Paralympic gold medals (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, et London in 2012) and a silver medal in Beijing in 2008. Dave retired from the national team in December of 2013 and is now giving back at different levels.
Desiree Isaac-Pictou
Wheelchair Basketball
Desiree Isaac-Pictou was a member of Canada's team that placed sixth at the women's U25 world wheelchair basketball championships in 2023.
Isaac-Pictou was injured in 2020. She was watching a mud bog race— a form of off-road motorsport—near her home in Eel River Bar First Nation, N.B., when one of the vehicles derailed from the track and struck her resulting in multiple fractures and two leg amputations.
As part of her rehabilitation, Isaac-Pictou’s recreational therapist introduced her to Sally Chamberlain, the Executive Director at Parasport New Brunswick. The latter opened her eyes to the world of adaptive sports.
Frank Henderson
Para Athletics & Wheelchair Basketball
Saint John born Frank Henderson has accumulated medals throughout his 50 year career in Wheelchair Sports, including athletics and basketball. Henderson kept working towards his dream to become a professional athlete despite a polio diagnosis at the age of 4. Between 1971, the year of his first international competition, and 1988, Henderson participates in either provincial, national or international competitions every consecutive year. Most notably, he won a silver medal at the 1972 Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany, and silver and bronze medals at the 1976 Paralympics in Toronto. Upon retirement, he coached basketball to other physically disabled athletes in New Brunswick and co-captained the Canadian Wheelchair All-Star team. Henderson was granted the Commemorative Medal during the 125th Confederation’s anniversary in 1992 and in 1995 he was a recipient of the New Brunswick Service Award.
Fred Edney
Para Athletics
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Hal Merrill
Para Athletics
Hal Merrill, of Fredericton, was an internationally-recognized Paralympian who competed at three Paralympics Games (1992, 1996, 2000) in discus, shot-put and javelin. He also appeared at the World Track and Field championships, World Wheelchair Games and other international competitions. An 11-year Canadian Paralympic team member, he won gold, silver or bronze medals in all his disciplines while establishing Canadian and world records. Dedication, hard work and perseverance have been lauded as keys to his long-term success. Merrill has twice been awarded Sport New Brunswick’s male athlete of the year as well as the N.B. Wheelchair Sports Association athlete of the year. He is also a member of the Fredericton Sports Wall of Fame. Since retiring from active competition, he served as a role model encouraging others to become involved in wheelchair sports.
Jesse Canney
Para Swimming
In 2019, Jesse Canney was named Sport New Brunswick’s male athlete of the year. He was the first Special Olympian to win the award in the province. In 2018, he also won Male Athlete of the Year for Special Olympics Canada and in New Brunswick.
At the 2023 World Games for Special Olympians, Canney collected three gold medals.
In 2022, Canney became Team New Brunswick’s most decorated Canada Games athlete with four medals that year in addition to his three in 2017.
Canney, who lives with autism, started taking private swimming lessons at age six, joined Special Olympics when he was 11 and at age 15 enrolled with the Fredericton Aquanauts Swim Team (FAST), and increased his training to seven times a week.
John (Jake) Donahue
Para Athletics
​St. Stephen-Milltown’s Jake Donahue was a better than average amateur athlete before his diving accident in 1966, who, through determination and with wifely encouragement, made himself into a national and world-class champion afterwards. From 1973 to 1988, he won in excess of forty gold, silver and bronze medals in National, Pan-American and World Championship competitions in the shot-put, javelin and discus events. St. Stephen has honoured him twice as athlete of the year, as the Dr. William Greenough Memorial Award winner, and, again, on the occasion of his retirement from wheelchair sports in 1988. "Don’t look at my disability, look at my ability” he once told an interviewer.
Kamylle Frenette
Para Triathlon
As a young child, Frenette regularly watched her dad competing in triathlons. Once turning 16 she decided to give it a try herself and began training and racing with him locally in New Brunswick.
Frenette raced sprint distances until she was 18 when she competed in her first Ironman 70.3 in Calgary. She began focusing on her running with the Université de Moncton cross country team from 2014-2018. She was approached by Triathlon Canada’s Para head coach, Carolyn Murray, to join the sport in December 2016. She kicked off the all important 2021 season with a bronze medal at World Cup event in Spain.
Louis Fortin
Para Nordic
Going to the Paralympic Games wasn’t on Fortin’s radar when he started cross-country skiing competitively in 2010. Fortin, a one-arm amputee, had always enjoyed playing numerous sports. But when three para-nordic skiing spots opened on the New Brunswick team for the 2011 Canada Winter Games, a local coach suggested Fortin should pursue a berth. At the Games, Fortin won two silver medals and his competitive career was launched. He has since competed at three World Cup events for the past three seasons, his best result a sixth place finish in the long distance event in 2012.
In 2013-14, Fortin competed at one World Cup and entered many local races against able-bodied competition in his home province. Off the ski trails, Fortin is a mathematics teacher at Oromocto High School in Saint John, New Brunswick, a position he has held since 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Moncton in forestry and worked in the field prior to becoming a teacher.
His arm and shoulder were amputated at age 14 after he developed bone cancer. He has travelled around the world, spending a year studying in Belgium, six months in England as a bartender, and two years in Italy.
Luke Donovan
Para Nordic
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Matthew Kinnie
Para Cycling
Kinnie turned to Para sports after a rock climbing accident left him paralyzed from the chest down in 2005. Kinnie loved the outdoors and was also studying engineering at the University of New Brunswick. He completed his engineering degree in 2007 and worked full time for 10 years. He has developed into Canada’s top racer in the H2 handcycling category. He is also passionate about Para sport and is the president of Parasport New Brunswick.
Matt Kinnie continues to improve at the international level in Para cycling. In 2021, he posted two-top five finishes at the World Road Championships. In 2019, he was first in the time trial and road race at the Parapan American Games. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, he swept gold in the time trial and road race at the Canadian championships.
Peter Cameron
Wheelchair Tennis & Wheelchair Basketball
Peter Cameron of Dalhousie was a gifted athlete before a tragic car accident in 1982 nearly brought an end to his athletic career. Determined to compete again, he embraced wheelchair sports. In 1992, he participated in the Barcelona Paralympic Games in wheelchair tennis after being ranked number one in Canada. Cameron excelled in national wheelchair basketball, winning Most Valuable Player and All-Star designations as well as being the player-coach for the Moncton wheelchair basketball team. He has also participated in several fund-raising events under gruelling conditions and is a shinning example of courage and dedication.
Sabrina Durepos
Wheelchair Basketball
Sabrina (Pettinicchi) Durepos is originally from Québec and participated in 4 Paralympic games with the national women's wheelchair basketball team. She is a double gold medalist (Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000) and has a bronze medal from Athens in 2004. Furthermore, Sabrina won 3 consecutive World Championship gold medals (Sydney 1998, Japan 2002 and Amsterdam 2006). She continues her involvement in the sport as a coach, administrator, and advocate for parasport.
Sandra (Davenport) DeVenney
Wheelchair Sports
It is to small-town Canada that we more often than not turn to find our world-class performers. The village of Fredericton Junction gave us one of those in the person of Sandra DeVenney. Her sports were track and field, swimming, table tennis and basketball. Her trophy case glitters with 56 national medals including 24 of gold.Between 1971 and 1976, she won medals at the Stoke-Mandeville Games in England, the Olympiads in Heidelberg and Toronto, the Pan-American Games in Mexico and at international basketball tournaments in the United States. Her long-time employer has been the Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Energy. How appropriate, for, through her resourcefulness, her energy, but most of all, her ability, she has achieved national and international athletic acclaim.
Shawn Matheson
Para Ice Hockey
Born and raised in Chatham, Shawn Matheson had his right leg amputated following a cancer diagnosis in 1988, but a missing leg didn’t stop him. That same year, he began his para sport journey by playing Sledge Hockey with the Ottawa Wings.
A year later, in 1989, Shawn joined the National team, going on to play at the World Championships, World Cups, and even go play for Canada at the Paralympic Winter Games in 1994(Bronze), 1998(Silver), 2002, 2006(Gold), and 2010.
Simon Richard
Goalball
Richard started playing goalball at age nine but was already a sport enthusiast as a youngster and involved in hockey, golf, and soccer. But he loved goalball immediately because he could stop the ball in the butterfly position similar to a hockey goaltender. At the last two national goalball championships (2015 and 2016), he led Nova Scotia to gold and was named the tournament MVP both times. Simon Richard made his major Games debut at the Toronto Parapan American Games. He helped Canada win a bronze medal and earn a berth at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Richard was the only athlete from New Brunswick at the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games.
Steve Banks
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