Michael Sametz (born on May 21, 1996) is a Canadian road racing para cyclist who competes in the C3 classification. He won a bronze medal for Team Canada at the 2016 Summer Paralympics – Men's road time trial C3.

Early life

Sametz was born on May 21, 1996, in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, to mother Ronda. After suffering a stroke in the womb, he was born with right hemiplegic cerebral palsy. While attending

Springbank Community High School Springbank Community High School is a public senior high school in Springbank, Alberta, Canada. Located on the west side of the city of Calgary, the school provides programming to students in grades nine to twelve from the communities of Bragg ...

, Sametz participated in Alberta Schools' Athletic Association sponsored cross country, golf, and badminton. He began cycling at age 12 when he was looking to try a new sport and turned to competitive road and track cycling in 2014. After graduating from high school, Sametz attended the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

as a business student with the intention of majoring in accounting.

Career

A year after turning to competitive road and track cycling, Sametz won two gold medals at the Global Relay Canadian 2015 Road Cycling national championships. He subsequently qualified for the

2015 Parapan American Games The 2015 Parapan American Games, officially the V Parapan American Games and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 ParaPan-Am Games, were a major international multi-sport event for Disabled sports, athletes with disabilities, celebrated in the tra ...

where he won a silver medal in the men's individual pursuit Cl-3 final. In 2016, at the age of 20, Sametz was named to Team Canada's

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...

team. In his Paralympic Games debut as the youngest member of the Canadian para-cycling team, Sametz won a bronze medal in the Road time trial C3. He was subsequently honoured by Calgary mayor

Naheed Nenshi Naheed Kurban Nenshi (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian politician who was the 36th mayor of Calgary, Alberta. He was elected in the 2010 municipal election with 39% of the vote, and is the first Muslim mayor of a large North American city. ...

upon his return. Following his Paralympic debut, Sametz won a gold medal at the 2017 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships by beating silver medalist Sergey Ustinov in the C3

Track time trial The track time trial is a track cycling event where cyclists compete individually against the clock to record the fastest time over the specified distance from a standing start. Time trial bikes Track time trial bikes differ from normal track bik ...

. He returned to the championships the following year and obtained a world championship title in the time trial. Prior to the trial, Sametz chose to use a bigger gear on his bike to gain speed on the descents. In 2020, Sametz was named to Canada's Paralympic Team prior to the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sametz, Michael 1996 births Living people University of Calgary alumni Cyclists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Canadian male cyclists Canadian track cyclists Paralympic cyclists for Canada Paralympic medalists in cycling Paralympic bronze medalists for Canada Sportspeople from Calgary UCI Para-cycling World Champions