Sask. athlete finds success in new sport after crash derails hockey career

Hockey players need to be able to quickly change direction on the ice. Kyrell Sopotyk had to do it in real life.

Sopotyk's promising hockey career was derailed by a snowboarding crash when he was only 19 years old. 

Now the Saskatchewan athlete has a new sport. He competed in wheelchair racing for the province at the recent Canada Summer Games, earning a bronze medal in the 1,500 metres.

Sopotyk was laced up into a pair of skates for the first time when he was three years-old at the rink in his hometown, Aberdeen, Sask. He had his first hockey practice a year later.

As a teenager he was picked up by the Prince Albert Mintos in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League. From there he moved on to Western Hockey League as a forward with the Kamloops Blazers. He was living his dream.

Then on Jan. 22, 2021, everything changed in an instant. 

The snowboarding accident fractured his T5 and T6 vertebrae, paralyzing Sopotyk from the chest down. His hockey career was over.

"It was obviously a heartbreaking moment," said Sopotyk in an interview with Saskatoon Morning host Leisha Grebinski.

"I just kept a positive mindset the whole time, knowing that I couldn't change it."

Sopotyk said he turned his thoughts to a future that would still include sport.

While still in hospital recovering, he had his recreational therapist reach out to para-athletics coach Jen Wood.

Wood said that an athlete reaching out so quickly after an injury was unusual. Most people take some time off.

"He was eager to jump back in," said Wood. "It was big for him to be able to do that. It was a big step."

Sopotyk and his mother, Lori, met Wood and another coach at the Field House in Saskatoon for a tryout in October 2021. 

Getting into the racing wheelchair was