A Calgary man is headed to the Parapan Am games in Santiago, Chile, next month after being named to Canada's para cycling team.
Mike Sametz is a Rio 2016 Paralympian, a Paralympic bronze medallist, and a Toronto Parapan Am silver medallist. In 2019, injury and illness took him out of the sport completely, but after four years he's ready for his comeback, and he's currently training in Ottawa with the national team.
He's one of eight athletes that have been named to the Canadian Parapan Am Team. Sametz said he crashed during a race in 2019 and was also dealing with symptoms of relative energy deficiency in sport, a newer issue being identified in high performance athletes. "It's an energy imbalance — so your energy expenditure is much higher than your energy input … that was a bit of a roller-coaster recovery from that," he said on CBC's The Homestretch. "I just finally said enough was enough and took some time away from the bike to fully get myself — my head — back into it and recover and see where I wanted to go with the sport." But, he said, he was itching to get back, and earlier in 2023 he started training again for competition.
Canada's para cycling team is comprised of: In a media release, the Canadian Paralympic Committee said the team is comprised of four Paralympians in the sport of para cycling, all of whom have Paralympic medals — Gautier, Moreau, Sametz, and Shaw.