Tara Llanes - Resilient Competitor and Coach

Tara Llanes’ photo could be in the dictionary beside resilience.

No matter how challenging life gets, or the severity of the adversities that come her way, Llanes bounces back, optimistic, energetic, and as competitive as ever.

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“I think it’s just kind of in my DNA. I just love to compete,” said Llanes, shortly after her Wheelchair Basketball Canada team had lost a hard fought, opening match, during February’s Toronto Cup Wheelchair Basketball Tournament.

She continued, “Chess, checkers, it doesn’t matter. I want to compete and I want to win.”

Llanes raced bicycles professionally for 15 years, starting with BMX bikes, then transitioning to mountain bikes.

During the 2007 ‘Jeep King of the Mountain’ race in Vail, Colorado, Llanes had a tragic accident, resulting in the paralysis of her lower body.

Llanes transitioned from racing two-wheelers globally to riding three-wheeled adaptive mountain bikes, eventually selling them, and helping to design a safe trail for disabled riders, in British Columbia.

Tara Llanes keeps Reinventing Herself

Question: “Which did you enjoy more and why? Cutting the ribbon during the official opening ceremony for the opening of Spine Trail in September 2017, or actually riding down the trail and providing feedback to the builder?” Llanes: “Just to be able to help in the process of making the trails safe, making it fun, making it interactive.

“You know, it’s just such an emotional thing, knowing that years before that, before adaptive mountain biking was really a thing, and selling adapted mountain bikes, sort of having this ‘If you build it, they will come mentality.’ ” Llanes began filling a need for other disabled individuals, who also wished to lead an active lifestyle. When they saw her riding her imported adapted mountain bike, they wanted one too.

https://www.tarallanesindustries.com

Llanes’ business had its best sales during the pandemic. She shed light on why this happened.

“I think everything was closed down and people were getting grants and/or people were deciding to spend money on bikes and adapted bikes because they wanted to be outside, because everything was closed,” she recounted.

She continued, “Able-bodied, like two-wheeled bikes, adapted bikes [sales], they were through the roof. People just needed to get outside.”

Return to Competitive Sports: Wheelchair Tennis and Wheelchair Basketball

After a long hiatus from competitive sports, Llanes began playing wheelchair tennis. She excelled in her new sport, competing in both singles and doubles.

Llanes tried wheelchair basketball, mainly to increase her speed on the tennis court. However, she fell in love with the sport, and eventually switched, returning to an adapted form of the game that she played, while in elementary and secondary school.

Llanes became a valuable member of the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team.

Training for the Delayed Tokyo Paralympics

While preparing for the Tokyo Paralympics, COVID-19 restrictions threw a huge monkey wrench, in the team’s progress, since they were forced to train apart from each other.

Llanes made the best of this bad situation, working with her coach, on an individualized program, to improve her skills.

“There was one thing my coach really wanted me to do and that was to work on my hand speed, to be quicker,” she stated, during a 2021 Zoom interview.

“Being able to really get my hands forward and back, forward and back, like really quick rotations,” she detailed.

“So it was a bit of a blessing in disguise, because we figured out how to set up my chair, so that the two big wheels are off the ground, so when I push there’s absolutely no resistance. I’m not moving anywhere.”

The pandemic delay of the Tokyo Games, enabled Llanes to make significant speed gains, before she hit the court, with her team.

“Had I not had that timeframe, I don’t know that we would have ever discovered being able to train like that, and I would have just been on the court. And on the court, there’s always some resistance because your wheels are touching the ground.”

No matter how bitter, or the quantity of lemons that life throws in her direction, Llanes bounces back, optimistic, energetic, and as competitive as ever.

She had planned to retire after Tokyo, her first Paralympics. However, competing in empty arenas left a bad taste in her mouth.

A Tale of Two Games: Tokyo and Paris Paralympics

“I thought Tokyo might be my last Paralympics but this is not the experience that I wanted,” recalled Llanes. “So I continued on to Paris. I thought, well it’s only three years instead of four.”

Llanes described some of the key differences between her Tokyo and Paris Paralympics experiences.

“In Tokyo, we were delayed a year because of COVID, and then finally got there. It was hard to think that you worked that hard to get there, the event was sold out and then there's nobody in the stands,” she recalled.

“The Japanese people built these beautiful stadiums and beautiful venues and then no one was there. That was hard, because there's nobody yelling and there's no energy. You had to bring your own energy.”

Llanes contrasted playing in empty venues with the energy that she felt at the Paris Games.

“When we rolled into the stadium, there was a men’s game playing. It was sold out. I mean, people in the rafters, 13,000 fans,” Llanes shared excitedly.

“I can’t really describe to you how loud it was in there. You couldn’t hear the person next to you. You had to yell in order to have a conversation,” she recalled.

She continued, “I got chills. I just I wanted to cry.”

Llanes Transitions to Coaching

In January 2025, Llanes made another pivot. She started coaching wheelchair basketball.

“Last January, I had to coach four camps. I was the head coach, so I had to come up with everything,” she explained.

“I had help from mentors and other coaches, but to sort of be the one running it, just gives you a very different perspective, and now I’m not so hard on coaches,” Llanes said.

She elaborated further on her transition from player to coach.

“It’s hard to look at the players that you have, the lineups that you have, figuring out strategies, figuring out the ways in which people have advantages on your team or disadvantages, and then the planning around it,” said Llanes.

She further broke down her coaching strategy.

When you’re trying to plan a season outline and trying to figure out, this is our goal. How do we work back from that and then how do we know what things we’re weak at and how do we want to get better? Llanes shared.

She continued, “Then what drills do we need to do, to make that happen? It’s a lot, but I enjoy the challenge, for sure, and I’m glad to be doing it.”

As a coach, Llanes draws heavily on her playing experience, when working with other high-performance, wheelchair basketball athletes.

“I very much like playing physical, when I’m on court. I think I probably, for better or for worse, take that to my coaching,” she said.

Llanes further expanded, “I actually feel like I’ve almost dialed it back a bit on coaching. There’s a lot of times where I want to go in the huddle and be more intense, but I’m like, “Let’s massage this a little bit. Let’s be a little bit more choosy with how we’re going to approach this.”

During the Toronto Cup Wheelchair Basketball Tournament, Llanes functioned as player-coach, for one of Wheelchair Basketball Canada’s two teams.

Her team defeated won the event, defeating Variety Village’s team in the finals.

The Resilience of High-Performance Para Athletes

Llanes never accepts defeat, in sport or in life.

“I’ve had many different injuries, many concussions, when I was racing mountain bikes, broken collar bones, blown out knees, punctured lungs. And every single time, I was like, ‘Alright, now this is a challenge. Now, my next step is, how am I going to get back?’ ” she shared.

Llanes traces her athleticism, champion’s mindset and love of sports to both parents.

“Both my parents were athletes. My mom was a very competitive softball player. My dad played a few different sports,” stated Llanes.

She attributes her resilience to her mom’s parenting.

Llanes shared, “My dad passed when I was four. So, it’ s just my mom and I. She just taught me to be a strong, independent woman, and I think that has really helped me throughout life.”

“After breaking my back, I had to be resilient. It’s interesting. A lot of people will come up to you and say, ‘If that happened to me, I don’t know what I would do.’ “

“But you don’t have a choice. So, when people say that, I’m like, yeah, I would have thought the same thing, but I’m not going to just lay in a hospital bed my whole life. Right?”

“You figure it out. You start to find what works for you. And that’s what you have to do. You have to just keep your mindset focused and like little wins, little wins, little wins. And then all of a sudden, it goes from here to there.

“It’s interesting because every single person here, you could go have a conversation with, and their story would blow your mind. Just how people ended up in a chair,” she confidently asserted, regarding her fellow competitors, at the Toronto Cup Wheelchair Basketball Tournament.

The challenges and obstacles that each one has overcome, just to get to the starting line or the beginning of a competition, places high-performance Para athletes among the most inspiring individuals on earth.

“Some of the stories I’ve heard, like my jaw’s on the ground,” said Llanes. “The amount of resilience that every single person here has, from whatever disability that they have, they’ve had to figure life out in a totally different way and manoeuvre through life and navigate it in a different way that works for them.

Senseless Violence in Toronto Needs to End

Toronto was once known as “Toronto the Good.” Back then, rare violent crimes sent shock waves throughout the city. Now, they are almost commonplace, and often do not become front page news.

On August 16, 1995, one of Toronto’s most heinous crimes occurred. Tamara and Marsha Ottey were stabbed to death, in the basement of their Scarborough home, by Marsha’s possessive ex-boyfriend, days before she headed to Arkansas State University, on a full track scholarship.

Eerily, exactly 30 years later (August 16, 2025), eight-year-old JahVai Roy, in a child’s safest place on earth, in the security, comfort and sanctuary of his mother's bed, with his mom, was killed by a stray bullet, in the ground floor apartment of their North York building.

Two weeks later, August 29, 2025, 19-year-old Daniel Amalathas was found in a washroom at the Scarborough Town Centre, the victim of gunshot.

The Black Action Defence Committee (BADC) organized today’s march and rally, from Nathan Phillips Square to Queen’s Park, to draw attention to the problem of gun violence in the greater Toronto area.

The BADC delivered a well-executed event. The only thing that was lacking was thousands more Torontians.

We often think or believe consciously or subconsciously that many issues are somebody else's problem, until they knock on our front door.

Where is our sense of community?
Why are we lacking in empathy?

Today, Jahvai Dominic Reese Roy's mom shared that she attended this annual march and rally for several years, with her older children, in support of other families, whose homes and lives had been shattered by gun violence, never imagining that a bullet would, one day pierce her heart and obliterate the peace and contentment of her household.

The Para Swimming Classification System Ensures Fairness in the Sport

One of the most important aspects of Para sport happens before athletes enter the field of play.

 

There are huge variations in the deficiencies and impairments that Para athletes have.

 

Photo credit: Adobe Stock Photos

“World Para Swimming has sport classes that address all of the IPC-identified eligible underlying impairments,” said Mike Edey, Swimming Canada’s Pathways and Domestic Classification Manager.

 

He then listed several of the conditions that the International Paralympic Committee has recognized.

 

·      Short of stature

·      Loss of strength

·      Spinal cord injury or nervous malformation

·      Demyelinating disease

·      Polio

·      Segment loss, like amputations 

·      Limb deficiency or a difference, like dysmelic (improperly formed limb)

·      Loss of vision

·      Intellectual functioning

 

Each of the impairments above, create functional limitations for Para athletes.

 

“We do have a functional classification system,” stated Edey.

 

He continued, “The attempt is to try and judge, given the swimmer’s eligible underlying health condition, that results in an eligible impairment, what their activity limitations are, within the sport of swimming, and how those are balanced against things like passive drag, when you know some part of the body cannot be positioned for a more advantageous static position.”

 

Functional impairments are grouped into different classifications, so that athletes whose limitations impact them similarly during their sport, compete together. This ensures that no athlete has an unfair advantage over the other competitors, in a race.

 

The IPC is responsible for governing five of the 29 Paralympic sports (Para athletics, Para ice hockey, Para powerlifting, Para swimming and shooting Para sport).

 

Functional limitations are sport specific. Para swimming has 14 classifications.

 

S1 to S10 are physical impairments.

S11 to S13 are visual.

S14 is intellectual.

 

 

Para Swimmer Assessment Process

 

First a physical assessment is done by a trained medical classifier. They are typically physiotherapists or doctors. 

 

This physical examination is not done in the water. It's done in a controlled setting. It involves direct manipulation, for athletes who have a physical impairment.

 

If the physical assessment determines that the athlete has enough impairment to meet the minimal impairment criteria for the sport, the next step is a technical assessment, which measures swimming.

 

The technical assessment is done at the same time as the physical assessment, in a controlled environment.

 

There is a flowchart of skills that an athlete can be expected to be tested on. The panel can ask them for more skills.

 

They are evaluated, swimming in a lane of a pool. They can repeat what the assessment team requests, as much as they want.

 

If deemed necessary, the optional observation assessment is done in the first appearance event at a competition.

 

First appearance is a rule within the IPC’s general guidelines for classification.

 

If the classification panel requires an observation assessment, they cannot observe the athlete during multiple races.

 

They must observe and evaluate the athlete, during their first race, then make their final decision.

 

“In 2018, the tools for technical and the observation assessments got a little broader,” said Edey. He then gave an example to describe what he meant.

 

“Let's say you're looking at somebody's wrist in swimming. We measure wrist flexion, extension and ulnar deviation. So that’s three scores.”

 

Edey described this as the “wrist cocking motion, that is deviating the fingers from the wrist outside, toward the ulna [forearm bone].”

 

He elaborated further. “As you enter and now you're starting to pull, it's thought that the strength or the ability to control your ulnar deviation is what helps you maintain the propulsive surface of your hand, addressing the water, instead of slicing thumb down, or not being able to position your hand, where it would catch water.”

 

“On the bench, in the medical assessment, a medical classifier will measure each of those three planes of movement and give them a score between zero and five,” he continued, “for a grand total of 15 points.”

 

Edey explained additional details of the classification scoring system.

 

“In the water, the wrist also measures 15 points, but the joint gets a score from zero to five and then is multiplied by three. So in the bench, any score from zero to 15 inclusive is legal, but in the water, you can only get multiples of three.”

 

Edey stated, “That was a really big change in 2018.”

 

“World Para Swimming wanted to be clear, in 2018, that this was a change to try to make the technical assessments, where you have to assess the role of a joint through multi planar movements, but you don't get to isolate them, like you do on the bench, to make it hopefully more inter-tester reliable by scoring, what the technical classifier judged the joint to be, without having to distribute those points amongst the planes of movement that you just never actually get to see in the water, in a compound movement.”

 

 

Codes of Exception

 

If an athlete “has an eligible underlying health condition that results in more than the minimum impairment criteria for swimming, she'd come to classification, that would be measured in a physical assessment, assessed in the technical assessment, to ensure that it meets the criteria for sport,” explained Edey.

 

“Then she would be assigned something called a code of exception, because if you can't physically do something, we're not going to keep disqualifying you for it,” he continued. “The codes are set at classification.”

 

Edey then gave an example.

 

“We have all kinds of athletes who come into the sport with things like bilateral club foot or CP, that mostly affects a lower limb,” he explained.

 

“They can't turn their toes out for breaststroke. So the code of exception 12 applies only to breaststroke, and it allows the swimmer to perform leg drag or to show intent to do a kick for breaststroke, and then it just has to be a kick that isn't dolphin or flutter kick, and it's perfectly legal,” Edey continued.

 

 

“There's a minimum number of skills they [Para swimmers] need to demonstrate; all the kicks, all the strokes, all of the turns,” explained Edey.

 

He continued, “The hard part then, is actually determining if you're watching somebody swim this way or that way, is the stroke fault that you're seeing the result of the impairment that you saw on the bench or maybe their technique just isn't super well developed.”

 

At the international level, Para swimmers must have great technique, to be classifiable.

 

“That's where at the international level, if they don't think you swim well enough technically, they just can't assign you a sport class and you go home,” stated Edey.

 

He elaborated, “So domestically, we need to get swimmers into the sport fairly early. So there are an increasing graduation of technical expectations as swimmers grow and progress and are assessed at different levels, domestically, of which we have three.”

 

“We expect them to be exceptionally technically competent, which may be one of the things that's the biggest difference between Olympic and Paralympic swimming,” he continued.

Edey provided more granular detail.

 

“Para swimmers need to be able to demonstrate all the strokes, because when you're assigned a sport class, breaststroke gets its own sport class. Butterfly, backstroke and freestyle all share the same sport class.

 

So how do you assign the sport class if you can't demonstrate the three strokes in the sport class?”

 

A great deal of planning, careful analysis and the individual assessment of every athlete undergirds the high quality of competition and fairness that exists in the sport of Para swimming.

Two Principles to Live By

My cousin, Dorrette, one of the most inspiring, positive influences in my life, for almost four decades, shared this with me recently.

These are the two principles, by which she lives her life.

No. 1: Take care of yourself first.

When you fly, the cabin staff always do a demonstration, which includes the proper procedure for putting on your breathing apparatus, if the cabin of the plane is depressurized.

Photo credit: Jack Tamrong, Adobe Stock Photos

If you are travelling with children, or if you are a kind-hearted soul, who enjoys helping others, you are admonished to put on your own breathing apparatus first.

If you try to aid your child or a fellow passenger, before you don your own breathing apparatus, you risk running out of oxygen, and passing out, rendering yourself incapable of assisting those that you were trying to help.

No. 2: Love yourself.

The Bible teaches us that we should love our neighbours as ourselves. If I don’t love myself, I am incapable of loving someone else.

I was about 29 when I learned that it was neither sinful nor selfish to make myself my number one earthly priority.

1986 was the year that I burned out, for the first time, after pushing myself extremely hard, for at least two years. I had been working full-time, supply teaching and doing short- and long-term teaching assignments.

I had also been trying to establish my own business. I was a new father, working hard to support my wife, a stay-at-home mom and our daughter. 

I had no idea that I had lost a few pounds (and I was already slim), until my dad pointed it out to me. This was an indication of how hard, I had been pushing myself.

Later that year, I had a mental breakdown, shortly before leaving Canada, in November, for a planned 5 1/2-week therapeutic vacation, after my wife left, and took our daughter with her, in February.

I ended up spending 8 1/2 glorious months, with loving, supportive family, including Dorrette, three of her sisters, her parents and another uncle and his wife, in England, my birth country.

I flew to the UK, with the clothes on my back and an attaché case!

I hope that you are prioritizing your life in such a way, especially if you are responsible,

dutiful,

loving,

caring,

giving and

empathetic, that will clearly establish boundaries with every person with whom you interact, especially:

your partner or spouse,

family members,

close friends and

your manager,

and that you will guard them fearlessly and consistently.

Otherwise, it will not be a question of if, but when and how often, you will become depleted (physically,

emotionally,

psychologically,

physiologically and

spiritually),

burn out, and become resentful, bitter or hateful toward those who used you.

However, they would have been able to use you, only because you allowed them to do so, because of your unwillingness to say, “Yes” to you and “No,” to them.

Please say, “Yes,” to optimum health and wellness.

TDSB Trustees Struggled to Approve Their Budget

JUNE 16 – TORONTO – Toronto District School Board trustees worked late on Monday evening, doing their best to comply with the Ontario Ministry of Education’s zero deficit budget mandate.

The 4:30 pm meeting was still going strong at 11 pm. They had two short breaks. At 10:58 pm, they voted for a 30-minute meeting extension.

Based on school board officials’ and trustees’ comments and questions, it feels like TDSB is between a fiscal rock and a hard place, as they look for areas to cut spending without harming students academically or experientially or reducing community use of school facilities, such as swimming pools.

The board is fine tuning their two-year 2025-2027 budget. The provincial government rejected it once before.

A possible solution that was not mentioned was seeking public-private partnerships. This could address some funding challenges, such as purchasing technology devices and musical instruments.

These are two of the areas where funding cuts have been proposed.

Other areas that are at least partially on the chopping block are

-              Music education

-              Outdoor education centres

-              Swimming pools and programming

-              Reduction of positions, financed by one-time funding

TDSB finds itself in this financial crunch, partly due to overspending.

However, when you take a closer look at their expenditures, you find that the provincial funding model finances schools at a lower level than TDSB spends. This is true for special education spending and teacher salaries.

Since TDSB invests more money in special education programming and their teacher salaries are higher, they perpetually “overspend”, based on the Ministry of Education’s fiscal standards.

Additionally, the Ontario government’s funding model has not kept pace with increases in the cost of living.

It seems disingenuous and contradictory that Doug Ford’s government insists that Ontario school boards all submit balanced budgets, then propose a 35% pay increase for themselves.

These members of provincial parliament are also funded by the same public purse.

If Ontario’s government finances are stretched thin, how can  they place strict financial restraints on school boards, while proposing a huge salary increase for themselves?

Another restraint that the provincial government  has placed on Ontario school boards, that contributes to their financial distress, is continuing the moratorium on closing or merging school buildings that are underutilized.

This is in the face of declining student enrolment in Toronto’s public schools.

TDSB staff stated that their temporary plan of getting government permission to use proceeds from sold properties in their operating budget is not sustainable.

After six and a half hours, Trustees failed to approve the proposed budget.

The meeting adjourned at 11:10 pm.