Alberta Sports Hall of Fame hosts Diversity in Sport panel

Jarvis has participated as a multi-sport athlete, coach, and advocate in sport for years, trying to empower athletes with disabilities. He has served on the Canadian Paralympic Committee, including 13 years as a volunteer and seven years as the chair.

When asked how collaboration has changed the way Canadians view parasport, Jarvis said that each day, everyone will have some impact on an individual.

“It’s across the spectrum, so to try to put it down to one thing is difficult. I go back to when I first got involved. We talked about disability-based sports coming together and actually getting out of the role of focusing on disability and focusing on sport,” he said.

“There was collaboration at the national level, there was collaboration with provincial organizations in terms of the first touch points of adaptive sport, and then at the highest level was actually convincing CBC that, as a national broadcaster, perhaps they should bring the stories. I look at all of those journeys, and without collaboration on a number of fronts, there wouldn’t have been a significant change.”

Currie Hall has dedicated her life to advancing Indigenous sport at the provincial, national, and international levels.

She helped launch the first-ever North American Indigenous Games held in Edmonton in 1990. She’s also the founder of the National Aboriginal Coaching School and hosted the first World Indigenous Nations Sport Conference.

She was asked what progress she’s seen and what still needs to be done to ensure Indigenous sport is preserved and shared.

She said the progress has been extraordinary.

“We were breaking glass ceilings a long time ago, and it just takes the determination and courage to actually do it because it was fearful. When you step into the unknown, and you don’t see anybody who looks like you, you’re the one leading the way,” she said. “A lot has changed, and what’s changed with the organizations that we did build, they still last. They still operate today.”

She added that what needs to change is that more women need to be on boards to ensure gender equity.

“It doesn’t hurt to invite people of colour and different nationalities because we bring a different perspective.”

Cunnington, who’s from Central Alberta, is a two-time Paralympian, motivational speaker, and advocate for resilience.

She won a gold medal in wheelchair basketball and later transferred into paraswimming, representing her country at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympic Games.

Now retired, she’s dedicated her life to inspiring others.

Her story is one of tremendous resiliency.

When she was six years old, she attended an airshow in Ponoka when a young pilot lost control of his plane and crashed.

The incident broke her brother’s leg, and he later recovered. However, Cunnington has been in a wheelchair ever since.

She said she hopes those who hear her story can remember the importance of resiliency.

“It always seems counterintuitive because if you’re learning and practicing resiliency, it means you’re going through hard things, but the more you can build that strength, the easier the hard things coming will be,” she said.

“I talk a lot about that and about shifting perspectives… I hate getting in and out of my car. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t take me that long, but it irritates me. I just want to get in and go. On the other side of things, I like to be independent and have my own car. That’s my shift in perspective.”

Meanwhile, Molstad, who played five seasons with the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos from 1968 to 1973, helped create the organization’s alumni association.

He later became the legal counsel for the CFL Players Association in 1974, where he helped establish player safety within the game.

Molstad was asked how collaboration has evolved between athletes, organizations, and leaders over the years.

He said the fact that he played with broken bones made him reflect later on players’ safety.

“It has evolved tremendously. Now you’ll see a neurosurgeon in the stands who is watching athletes participate in football to see if they should have an examination after a very hard hit. We don’t know from medical studies whether small hits cause brain damage as opposed to severe concussions. There’s been an evolution in terms of treatment of athletes with injuries,” he said, adding players’ salaries in professional sports have also increased substantially over the years.

Finally, Norton is a celebrated figure in the world of wheelchair basketball. When he was a child, he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, which is a rare disorder that causes inflammation of the spinal cord.

He was introduced to wheelchair basketball at 14 years old and embraced the sport, achieving multiple accolades along the way.

When asked what responsibility today’s sports leaders have to make sport and life better for everyone involved, he said the reason why he’s stayed involved in wheelchair basketball after being an athlete was that he wanted to give back.

He said passing on knowledge is a big part of it.

“I’ve played a lot of basketball internationally, and so you see a lot of things that are good. You take parts of what other countries are doing, or what other clubs around Canada are doing, and you make a mental note,” he said.

“Now that I’m an administrator, I’m trying to implement those things. I’m trying to keep our club at an elite level, and part of our responsibility is, if we have an athlete with a disability and they want to pursue the Paralympic level, it’s our responsibility to make sure they have the things they need to be successful.”

by Ian Gustafson

Alberta Sports Hall of Fame hosts Diversity in Sport panel

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