The Niagara region’s prominent spot on the map for sports tourism is showing no sign of diminishing.
After hosting the Canada Summer Games in 2022 and the 2024 World Rowing Senior, Under 23 and Under 19 Championships last month in St. Catharines, Niagara will be the site for the 44th Ontario Parasport Games, set to take place May 29 to June 1, 2025, at venues throughout the region.
Besides Brock University in St. Catharines and Canada Games Park in Thorold, athletes, coaches, managers, managers, officials and volunteers from across the province will also be competing at Vale Health and Wellness Centre in Port Colborne.
Sport Niagara, a not-for-profit organization with the mandate of carrying on the sport legacy from the Niagara 2022 Canada Games, is “extremely excited” to welcome para athletes to the region.
“Hosting sporting events like this will continue to support sports tourism and economic development in Niagara,” said Doug Hamilton, a Sports Niagara board member and chair of the 2022 Canada Games host society.
Jeff Tiessen, a medallist for Canada at the Paralympic Games in 1984, 1988 and 1992, has been selected to lead the steering committee for the upcoming Ontario Parasport Games.
“Niagara has such a rich parasport history, and I’m excited for these games to create even more adapted sport opportunities for individuals with disabilities,” said the 12-time Ontario Parasport Games participant and Class of 2010 Canadian Disability Hall of Fame inductee.
Tiessen, a double amputee above the elbow since he lost his arms in an electrical accident at age 11, earned the silver medal in the A5 high jump and swam in three events at the 1984 Paralympics in New York. Four years later in Seoul, he focused on athletics and won gold in the A5/A7 400 metres, as well as racing in the 100 and 200.
Tiessen, ParaSport Ontario’s managing director as well as a published author and speaker, wrapped up his career as a Paralympian with a bronze medal in the TS3 400 at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.
Ontario Minister of Sport Neil Lumsden, a Canadian Football League hall of famer and one-time Brock University athletic director, said the 2025 Ontario Parasport Games will be an “exciting opportunity for highly skilled athletes to come together in competition with their peers from across the province.”
“The event will provide a significant impact for the local economy, boost tourism, create jobs and inspire a new generation of athletes,” said Lumsden, who won three Grey Cup championships as a player with the then-Edmonton Eskimos and one as general manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The last games were held in 2023 in the Durham region, where more than 500 athletes competed in 11 sports at eight different centres, including three in Oshawa.
It won a 2024 Prestige Award for Legacy of the Year from Sport Tourism Canada.
The Niagara Summer Games won the Canadian Sports Event of the Year Award and the Sports Event Legacy of the Year Award from the same organization the year prior.
The Region of Durham reported on its website the 2023 Ontario Parasport Games brought $702,853 in economic impacts to the region and a $145,579 legacy fund, surpassing the initial budgeted legacy fund target of $60,230 by more than 240 per cent.
The first games took place in 1975 in Cambridge.