'I want to win the medal I'm missing': Josh Cassidy still uncertain of Paralympic future

There is more than a trace of bitterness in Josh Cassidy's voice nearly 15 months after being left off the Canadian team for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

The wheelchair racer remains frustrated by the few quota spots afforded bigger nations like Canada by the International Paralympic Committee because of an increase in participating countries. It had 16 in Para-athletics for Japan, where 155 countries competed, compared to 24 Canadian athletes at the 2012 London Olympics (141 countries) and 22 in Rio four years later (146 nations).

In 2019, Cassidy posted personal-best times across three events at age 35 ahead of the 2020 Games, postponed one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was among about 50 Canadian track and field athletes who met the Paralympic qualifying standard in their respective events and a year ago ranked ninth in the world in the men's marathon.

"I think they went totally by [world] ranking," Cassidy said from his Barrie, Ont., home before withdrawing from this Sunday's New York City Marathon due to illness. "It was a shame for the sport. [The men's T54 marathon] is the most competitive with the deepest field.

"We could have had a field of 40 strong in the [Paralympic] marathon and I think 15 men lined up. The IPC is trying to grow sports and add more events but at the expense of the most competitive [of all the Para-athletics disciplines].

"What is a Paralympics or Olympics," he added, "if you're missing four of the top 10 in the world [in the marathon]?"

British wheelchair athlete Dave Weir, whose friendship with Cassidy dates to the early 2000s, was "devastated" about the Canadian's absence in Tokyo.

"I know how passionate and proud he is about his country and racing for his country," the six-time