It sounds cliché, but Ryan Shay was the typical Canadian teenager; a hard-nosed defenceman, Shay patrolled the blue-line for the South Shore Mustangs of the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League, and had designs on going further in the game.

But his dreams, and his life, changed on Jan. 20, 2013, when a car accident left Shay a C-7, C-8 quadriplegic and instantly ended his hockey career.

Despite the tragedy, Shay refused to give up on his passion for sports; he’s using his athletic ability to carve a new path in life, one he hopes takes him to South America 18 months from now.

“I’ve always been an athlete and I just wanted to get involved in some sort of sport after the accident to keep myself busy and my mind off the negative vibes,” Shay says.

During rehab after his accident, Shay, now 20, discovered he was pretty good at wheelchair racing. Less than a year after he was paralyzed, the Yarmouth, N.S., native was competing in paratrack, and has progressed to the point where he could very well represent his country at the 2016 Paralympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a T52 quad racer in 100m and 200m events.

As if racing wasn’t enough, Shay also represented Nova Scotia in wheelchair basketball at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C., having only picked up the game a few months ago.

So needless to say, he’s still quite the athlete.

But why wheelchair racing, and why wheelchair basketball? The explanation lies in his handicap: C-7 and C-8 quadriplegics are paralyzed from the nipple line down.

“Our cardio isn’t as good as others, the heart rate doesn’t go up as much and we don’t really sweat so we tend to overheat,” Shay says. “Also, I have a lot of fast-twitch muscles so I’m good for some quick bursts of speed and after that my cardio dies down pretty quick. That’s why I’ve been focusing more on the short distances in racing for now.”

That would explain why a former hockey player, and passionate fan, hasn’t taken up sledge hockey.
 
“I still go to the rink to watch hockey games and it always gets me itchy to go back on the ice,” he says. “At the same time, if I were to get into sledge hockey, it would be more recreational because I’d be playing against people with amputations who, unlike me, usually still have use of their trunks, abs, back muscles and hands, so I’d be at quite a disadvantage.”

Let’s go back to the beginning of his paratrack journey, though.

As he got better at the sport, and as his aspirations grew larger, the need for newer and better equipment grew as well. But a top-of-the-line racing chair costs upwards of $6,000, money Shay just didn’t have.

That’s where Tim Boyce came in.

Boyce, Shay’s former coach with the Mustangs and the current head coach of the Halifax McDonald’s, who represented the Atlantic Region at last year’s TELUS Cup, had followed his former defenceman’s progress through social media, and was ready to do what he could to make Shay’s dreams a reality.

“We donated the door profits and the 50/50 money from our three pre-season games (last September) directly to Ryan’s wheelchair fund,” Boyce says. “A couple of teams in the NSMMHL did the same thing, while some others simply asked for donations during their home games.”
 
The result? $2,100 was raised and every penny went to purchase a high-tech custom-fitted racing wheelchair for Shay.

But Boyce’s generosity didn’t stop there.

“After seeing Ryan post a tweet about starting his own website, I reached out to my staff and told him to leave it with me,” Boyce says. “Within three days, we had a website up and running for him to log all his information.

“He’s certainly inspired me to become a better person and he’s motivated me as well. He may have learned a thing or two from when I coached him, but I can definitely say I’ve learned a lot about myself through him as well.”

So the Road to Rio is a reality for Shay, but he doesn’t plan on keeping his athletic interests to a minimum. After all, with everything he’s gone through, what’s one more challenge?

“Right now track is where I see my future so that’s where I’m focusing my energy. But I also want to give everything a shot – target shooting, skiing, rowing, anything!”

To learn more about Ryan Shay’s story, and his journey to the Paralympics, visit www.ryanshay.ca or www.facebook.com/paratrackmovement.