Puisand Lai (born July 29, 2000) is a Canadian
wheelchair tennis and
1.0 point wheelchair basketball player. In 2018, she was part of the
Canadian national women's wheelchair basketball team at the
2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship
The 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was held at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Hamburg, Germany, from 16 to 26 August 2018. Both men's and women's tournaments were held, with 12 women's and 16 men's teams competing, representing 19 di ...
in
Hamburg.
Biography
Puisand Lai was born in
Honolulu County,
Hawaii, on July 29, 2000.
When she was six years old, she was diagnosed with
transverse myelitis, a rare
neurological
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...
condition in which the
spinal cord is
inflamed.
In October 2013, Lai joined the Mississauga Little Aces program, a project supported by
Tennis Canada and run by Albert Fong of Mississagua Little Aces, which teaches tennis to children from ages six to sixteen, and children with disabilities from ages eight to nineteen. Lai was soon able to play with non-disabled children.
In July 2014, she represented Tennis Canada in the International Tennis Federation Americas Junior Wheelchair Tennis Camp,
one of only three such camps worldwide.
By 2017, she was ranked 7th in the
ITF rankings for girls' wheelchair tennis, and 73rd in the women's. She was a member of Canada's 2017 World Team Cup junior team, competing in Sardinia, Italy after the team earned a wild card spot from the International Tennis Federation.
Lai also participated in
sledge hockey,
sailing and
wheelchair basketball,
where she was classified as a
1.0 point player, and began playing competitively in 2014. She was noticed by Kathy Ludwig, the Ontario coach, who asked her to join Team Ontario. In 2018, she was part of the
Canadian national women's wheelchair basketball team at the
2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship
The 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was held at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Hamburg, Germany, from 16 to 26 August 2018. Both men's and women's tournaments were held, with 12 women's and 16 men's teams competing, representing 19 di ...
in
Hamburg.
, she is studying engineering at
McMaster University.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lai, Puisand
2000 births
Canadian women's wheelchair basketball players
Living people
Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Canada
Sportspeople from Honolulu
American emigrants to Canada
Wheelchair basketball players at the 2023 Parapan American Games
Medalists at the 2023 Parapan American Games