Athletes

St. Catharines’s Ashlee Dag will never forget her first karate tournament. “I felt so accepted,” she remembers. “As a power wheelchair-user I’m the only seated karate athlete in my region. And I won two bronze medals in that tournament.”

Her second tournament, the Nationals this past November, rewarded her with a gold medal for her Kata. “I have never won in any sport in my life,” she shares. “It was so sweet.”
Her parasport success has not been without its challenges. The most difficult perhaps, was finding a wheelchair accessible dojo. “I started in karate over twenty years ago but was never thrilled about the number of stairs that I had to climb up. And my Sensei was not educated about disability at all.”