{"id":372496,"date":"2025-12-26T07:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T07:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372496\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T07:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T07:05:11","slug":"six-time-paralympian-mike-whitehead-reflects-on-wheelchair-rugby-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/372496\/","title":{"rendered":"Six-time Paralympian Mike Whitehead reflects on wheelchair rugby career"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Mike Whitehead, 2025 has been an emotional year, bringing to an end his 24-year Canada<\/a>\u00a0 wheelchair rugby<\/a> career.<\/p>\n

The six-time Paralympian announced his decision in March after winning two silver medals and one bronze at the Games, as well as multiple medals at the World Championships and the Parapan American Games.<\/p>\n

Whitehead, 50, has been through a lot in the sport he turned to while still in recovery from a car crash in 2000. Looking back months on, though, his overwhelming sense is one of gratitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful for many things, the support, I have a lot of gratitude for my coaches, staff, my teammates,\u201d he tells the IPC.\u00a0 \u201cThe journey I had over 24 years was a privilege and that was the extended version. It was longer than I anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Closing a career<\/p>\n

As is so often the case when athletes retire, it is not the rush of competition or even the medals they miss most, but the community and social aspects with teammates. Whitehead was no different.<\/p>\n

He got a gym membership and started training by himself. But he did not enjoy it. He found a different gym and started going to classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a group of guys in there I train with every day at 9:30, they\u2019re semi-retired as well. I\u2019m hanging with the guys, having coffee, chit-chatting, there is a few things I\u2019ve been missing and I\u2019ve been able to supplement that which is cool,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m playing a lot of club rugby, that is scratching the itch, and some wheelchair basketball, which has also been a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected [to miss my teammates] but you don\u2019t know until you feel it. I felt it; [the first gym] was isolating, I needed to shoot the breeze and have some jokes. Social health is a big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Canadian<\/p>\n

Canada finished sixth at the Paris 2024, Whitehead’s sixth Paralympic appearance. @Steph Chambers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beyond wins and losses<\/p>\n

Heartbreak and elation from his career still play on Whitehead\u2019s mind even now, but he says he learned a lot and is already helping the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about wins and losses and what I could have done. You play those things in your head, but they have less impact on me than they used to emotionally. I got to see a lot of the world, see a lot of my friends and work really hard and learn so much from Sport Canada and Wheelchair Rugby Canada provided me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was chatting with a girls\u2019 basketball team that is heading to provincials and [telling them about] some of the stuff I learned during my career around hydration. Their eyes were popping out of their heads. Some of the losses still sting, but maybe a little less.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as he looks back, it is the impact he was able to have on his family and the experiences he could share filled him with the most pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were big wins that stand out, but when I retired I chatted with my kids a bit, they are young adults and reflected on their experience,\u201d he smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went to three Paralympics as youngsters. I\u2019m really proud when they share, to provide my children with an experience of travelling the world, seeing the Paralympics and seeing their dad. It was just normal for them; I asked if they wanted to go to Paris and they said they were busy! They\u2019ve been there and done that; they\u2019re thankful and I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Having a family] is a lot of hard work. I have friends who are young parents, it is a lot of work. I\u2019m very thankful for healthy kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Whitehead, right, says he has learned a lot from sport, and he is already helping out the next generation. @David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wheelchair rugby community<\/p>\n

Whitehead still remembers his accident, which resulted in a spinal cord injury, very clearly. While there were difficult moments to come to terms with, it was sport that gave him purpose and focus again through the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was February 2000 and one of the wheelchair rugby players, David Wison, came and saw me at the hospital. I was still an impatient in spinal chord rehab. He said \u2018I heard you like sports and we play wheelchair rugby, want to come to practice on Tuesday?\u2019 He picked me up, I jumped in the van, slowly, I could barely transfer. I went into a gymnasium in Chatham, Ontario.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI met others with disabilities, some had more function than me, some less. I was introduced to a community, a sport and I felt at home. I knew, post-injury, things were going to be okay, I could see it. Doctors and nurses are wonderful, they told me I needed to hang with other people in wheelchairs to see it. I knew it would be okay, they had jobs, families, kids, they smile, laugh and joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cDave was getting ready for the (Sydney) 2000 Paralympics, I was like \u2018okay, lets go\u2019. From that point on I wanted to make the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Whitehead, left, was introduced to wheelchair rugby in 2000 and made his Paralympic debut four years later at Athens 2004. @Natalie Behring\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitehead was candid on the impact his accident had on his life, and the journey he went on in accepting his life as he knew it was over. But, given what has transpired since, he would go through it all again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was catastrophic, and hard to explain. When your mom is shattered, your dad is beside himself, it is hard on the family when you break your neck. I remember crying in the hospital, you go through the \u2018why?\u2019 and grieve an old life, it is profound. Now it is interesting to hang with people who break their necks, we have this common bond. It is really cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be reintroduced to sports and community, it saved my bacon. That is a fact. I would go back, an electrician, playing senior league hockey and softball, the boys, I traded that in to travel the world and get paid to play wheelchair rugby for my country. I would make that trade again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Whitehead, 2nd from right, played wheelchair rugby for over 24 years. @Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing the Paralympic Movement together<\/p>\n

Having seen the growth and development of not only the sports but also the Paralympic Movement generally over the last six Games, Whitehead has become a valued voice on the subject, leading TED talks and helping spread awareness.<\/p>\n

While he says the explosion of interest at Paris 2024 is a world away from when he started, it must continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport skills are life skills; they\u2019ve always helped me. I\u2019ve done some talks, I feel that there has been a lot of us representing the Paralympic Movement and doing work in different communities; it is making an impact. As long as we continue to chip away, the Movement is getting bigger and bigger for all the right reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going through some stuff at my mom\u2019s house and I found an old interview from 2004 in the newspaper. It was not front page.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it is 20 years later, it is everywhere, the Movement is strong, healthy and growing, there is so much respect for us now. But we still have work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Mike Whitehead, 2025 has been an emotional year, bringing to an end his 24-year Canada\u00a0 wheelchair rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-372496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}