Puisand Lai

Puisand Lai
Lai at the 2024 Summer Paralympics
Personal information
Nationality Canada
Born (2000-07-29) July 29, 2000 (age 24)
Honolulu County, Hawaii
Height5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Sport
SportWheelchair basketball
Disability class1.0
EventWomen's team
Medal record
Women's wheelchair basketball
Representing  Canada
Parapan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2019 Lima Team
Silver medal – second place 2023 Santiago Team

Puisand Lai (born July 29, 2000) is a Canadian wheelchair tennis and 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player. In 2018, she was part of the Canadian national women's wheelchair basketball team at the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Hamburg.

Biography

Puisand Lai was born in Honolulu County, Hawaii, on July 29, 2000.[1] When she was six years old, she was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a rare neurological condition in which the spinal cord is inflamed.[2]

In October 2013, Lai joined the Mississauga Little Aces program, a project supported by Tennis Canada and run by Albert Fong of Mississagua Little Aces, which teaches tennis to children from ages six to sixteen, and children with disabilities from ages eight to nineteen. Lai was soon able to play with non-disabled children.[2]

In July 2014, she represented Tennis Canada in the International Tennis Federation Americas Junior Wheelchair Tennis Camp,[2] one of only three such camps worldwide.[3] By 2017, she was ranked 7th in the ITF rankings for girls' wheelchair tennis, and 73rd in the women's.[4] She was a member of Canada's 2017 World Team Cup junior team,[5] competing in Sardinia, Italy after the team earned a wild card spot from the International Tennis Federation.[6][7]

Lai also participated in sledge hockey, sailing and wheelchair basketball,[2] where she was classified as a 1.0 point player, and began playing competitively in 2014. She was noticed by Kathy Ludwig, the Ontario coach, who asked her to join Team Ontario. In 2018, she was part of the Canadian national women's wheelchair basketball team at the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Hamburg.[1]

As of 2018, she is studying engineering at McMaster University.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Puisand Lai". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d "Wheelchair player a hit with Little Aces". Mississauga.com. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  3. ^ Crenshaw Jr., Solomon (July 20, 2017). "Only three wheelchair tennis camps were held in the world. One recently at Lakeshore". Birmingham Times. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  4. ^ "Wheelchair – Player Profile – Lai, Puisand (CAN)". ITF Tennis. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  5. ^ "Canada's Puisand Lai dazzles on Day 1 of Birmingham Classic". Tennis Canada. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  6. ^ Tennis Canada (May 1, 2017). "Ontario Athletes to Represent Team Canada in Wheelchair Tennis World Team Cup". Ontario Wheelchair Sports Association. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  7. ^ "Team Canada sending quad and junior team to BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Italy". ISN Daily Digest. April 29, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2018.