For Canada's Danielle Ellis, sitting volleyball team captain's shoes a snug fit

Danielle Ellis doesn't remember exactly when she inherited the captaincy of Canada's women's sitting volleyball team — it was either 2017 or 2018.

But she knows that she felt nervous filling the shoes left behind by the previous captain, Jolan Wong.

"They probably looked like clown shoes to me, to be honest, when I started. And I think now they just fit. They're a comfortable pair of sandals that I can just wake up and I can do the responsibilities and hopefully my team feels the same," Ellis told CBC Sports.

Now, with plenty of reassurance in her role, Ellis, the 31-year-old from White Rock, B.C., will look to lead Canada into the 2024 Paris Paralympics when the sitting volleyball World Cup begins on Saturday in Cairo, Egypt.

Canada needs to finish first among all non-qualified nations to book its ticket to Paris. Otherwise, it must compete in a last-chance qualifier next year.

Ellis, who lost her right leg below the knee due to cancer as a newborn, was with the team from 2009 to 2012 before taking a hiatus until 2015.

Since Ellis' return, Canada's women reached their first Paralympics in 2016 and finished seventh, improved to fourth at the 2021 Games and won silver at the 2022 world championships.

The team's ascendancy is undeniable — and the next step is the Paralympic podium.

"Every single person on this team has been working so hard for that gold medal at the Paralympics. Fourth wasn't quite enough in Tokyo. And so I think every single person on this team wants it so bad, and that's what's really made us better," Ellis said.

Ellis' journey in the sport, however, hasn't been as simple as the team's recent upwards trajectory.

She was part of the squad that missed qualifying for London 2012 — considered by some the