Colette Bourgonje

Colette Bourgonje (ber-gon-yah) (born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian Paralympic cross-country skier and athlete of Métis heritage.

She has won four bronze medals in Summer Paralympics and medals in Winter Paralympics for skiing.

Bourgonje was left paralyzed after a car accident in 1980, two months away from graduating high school.

She had been a cross country runner, with many athletic scholarship offers to many universities.

Her brother needed to be dropped off in Hudson Bay, so Colette and her boyfriend at the time took him in her brother's new car.

On the way back, she let her boyfriend drive, and he lost control on the slippery road, and Colette was ejected from the car.

To get Colette to the hospital in Saskatoon in time, 40-50 vehicles in Porcupine Plain shone their headlights on the plane strip landing so the air ambulance could land.

The accident punctured her lungs, broke her sternum and back.

98% of her spine was severed and two Harrington rods were placed in her back to maintain the curvature of her back.

Bourgonje admitted her immobilization to her uncle Don, who was instructed by Colette to tell everyone else.

Barbara Dorsey, a professor at the College of Physical Education at the University of Saskatchewan visited Bourgonje in the hospital and encouraged her to continue considering attending, regardless of the accident.

She agreed that as long as Colette was able to finish twelfth grade, the university would accept her.

She was introduced to Para Sport by the Saskatchewan Wheelchair Sports Association (SWSA) shortly after the accident because she had previously been a cross country runner.

She spent the summer of 1980 rehabilitating and wrote an advert in the local paper, thanking her community for their continuous support.

He left the family in 1984 during Colette's undergraduate degree.

Bourgonje participated in many sports as a child and young teenager, and was successful in hockey, football and various track and field events.

Bourgonje was initially introduced to Para Sport by Saskatchewan Wheelchair Sports Association (SWSA) shortly after her accident, and joined the association in 1987.

She had to train herself at first, as very few coaches knew how to train athletes with disabilities.

She used her knowledge from school and her training prior to her accident to train, and was cautious to not overwork herself.

Bourgonje is one of few Canadians to receive medals in both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.

She has competed in six winter Paralympic Games in sit skiing and three summer Paralympic Games as a wheelchair racer.

SASKI-Skiing for Disabled began in the early 1990s, with skiing for the blind and were looking for other disabled persons to become physically active.

Her friend and president of SASKI, Pat Prokopchuk and others created Colette's first sit ski in 1993.

It was remodelled from one from Denmark, which was weak and broke after short use.

The Saskatchewan Abilities Council was able to mould the sit ski to Colette's body, while making the model out of fibreglass and clamping the skis to the chair.

After the 1994 World Cup Championships, the German team shared their sit ski prototype which Colette liked, with the bucket attached to the skis.

In 1997, a sign was placed Porcupine Plain, promoting it as Bourgonje's and distinguishing her as a successful Paralympian.

She gave one of her silver medals from the 1998 Games to Pat Prokopchuk, as she brought and initiated the remodelling of the sit ski in Saskatchewan.

In 2002, the Memorial University of Newfoundland made Colette a special sit ski which was much lighter but more difficult to balance.

She later traded hand control model equipment for cars with the Russian team for their sit ski, which was made of titanium.

Bourgonje's silver medal in the 10 km sit-ski at the 2010 Winter Paralympics was Canada's first at home.

She is a part-time physical education substitute teacher, and currently resides in Prince Albert.

To honour Colette, an elementary school and a street have been named after her in Saskatoon.

When her age was questioned after participating in the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, and receiving the first medal on Canadian turf, she responded with "age is nothing, attitude is everything and I live by that today".

Bourgonje was also a part of the Team Visa Inc. Program in 2010, which supports 30 individual athletes globally to prepare for the Olympics and Paralympics.

They do this by providing valuable marketing, long term financial support and mentorship.

She became an inductee in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2019, and a 2021 inductee in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.

Bourgonje is a Dutch last name, but her Indigenous background on her mother's side leads back to a leader named Gabriel Dumont, who set up a Métis government at Batoche in the Northwest Territories.

Her father was an electrician and had a business but was not able to keep it due to his alcoholism.

Bourgonje's mother Sheila and grandmother comforted the children through the difficult times.