Erica Gavel (born May 25, 1991) is a Canadian 4.5 point

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...

player who won a silver medal at the 2015 Parapan American Games in

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. In 2016, she was selected as part of the team for the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

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Biography

Erica Gavel was born in Prince Albert,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, on May 25, 1991. She attended Carlton Comprehensive High School, where she was a promising

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. She went on to play for the

University of Saskatchewan Huskies The University of Saskatchewan began in 1907 and has operated teams that compete with others since 1911. The term Huskie Athletics is defined as those student athletes from the University of Saskatchewan that compete in elite interuniversity ...

. Towards the end of her first year, she suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery. Like most young and fit people, she recovered quickly, and was ready to play again at the start of her second year. She played for most of the season but then tore her cartilage in the same knee. This benched her for 18 months. She had no sooner recovered than she injured the knee a third time. This time it required

microfracture surgery Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics t ...

. There was no cartilage between her

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with ...

and

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

. Doctors told her that she would never play competitive sport again. Gavel remembered that a classmate played

, and decided to give it a try. She was classified as a 4.5 point player. On March 30, 2014, Gavel led Team Saskatchewan to their first Junior National Championship. Her passion and performance earned her a five-year athletic scholarship to play at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

Crimson Tide, which was placed second in the National Intercollegiate Championship in 2014. Gavel was named the team's Most Improved Player. That year she selected for the Canadian national team, which went on to win Silver at 2015 Parapan American Games in

, Ontario). In 2016, she was selected as part of the side for the

2016 Summer Paralympic Games ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

Awards

*2015 – Silver at 2015 Parapan American Games (

, Ontario)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gavel, Erica 1991 births Canadian women's wheelchair basketball players Living people Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Canada Sportspeople from Saskatoon Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics