Jean Labonté (born March 20, 1969) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ice sledge hockey Sledge hockey, also known as Sled hockey in American English, and Para ice hockey in international competition, is an adaptation of ice hockey for players who have a physical disability. The sport was invented in the early 1960s at a rehabilitat ...

player. Labonté was diagnosed with

osteosarcoma An osteosarcoma (OS) or osteogenic sarcoma (OGS) (or simply bone cancer) is a cancerous tumor in a bone. Specifically, it is an aggressive malignant neoplasm that arises from primitive transformed cells of mesenchymal origin (and thus a sarcoma) a ...

in his left

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 ...

in 1986 at the age of 17 and finally lost his leg at the age of 20, in 1990. After his

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

, Labonté turned his sights towards

and made the Canadian National Sledge hockey team for the first time in 1996. He was on the Canadian team that won the 2006 sledge hockey gold medal at the

2006 Winter Paralympics The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games ( it, Giochi paralimpici invernali del 2006), the ninth Paralympic Winter Games, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy. They were ...

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

. He was the captain of the Canadian Team from the 2007–08 season until his retirement after the 2009–2010 season. He studied at l'Université du Québec en Outaouais and currently works at

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

as a software designer.

International career

Labonté was named on the Canadian men's national ice sledge hockey team for the first time in 1996, at the age of 26. His first international tournament was the 1996 IPC World Championships held in Nynäshamn, Sweden. Labonté was team Canada's captain from the 2007–2008 season until his retirement after the 2009–2010 season. Labonté was the flag bearer for Canada at the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver.

Career statistics

International

External links

Player profile - Hockey Canada
* 1969 births Living people Ice hockey people from Gatineau Canadian sledge hockey players Paralympic sledge hockey players for Canada Paralympic gold medalists for Canada Paralympic silver medalists for Canada Ice sledge hockey players at the 1998 Winter Paralympics Ice sledge hockey players at the 2002 Winter Paralympics Ice sledge hockey players at the 2006 Winter Paralympics Ice sledge hockey players at the 2010 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Paralympics Paralympic medalists in sledge hockey {{Canada-Paralympic-medalist-stub