Allison Lang was born missing the lower half of her left leg.
The Edmonton-born and raised athlete now lives in Montreal but is currently in France to compete for Team Canada in sitting volleyball at the Paralympics.
“I didn’t even know the Paralympics existed when I was a young child, because they’re not broadcasted the same way that the Olympics are,” she explained.
Lang grew up participating in a variety of sports — soccer, swimming, skiing which turned into snowboarding — although athletic, she struggled to fit in.
“I was severely bullied because of my disability, and it made me resent my body. And at one point in my life, I didn’t want to be alive because of my disability. I ended up quitting sports, I hid my prosthetic, and it really isolated me,” said Lang.
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In 2009, she met a girl who introduced her to sitting volleyball.
“To be honest, I didn’t love the idea of adaptive sports at first, because it made me feel different than my peers, and for so long I didn’t want to be different, I wanted to fit in, we would love to make the podium, to hopefully inspire young disabled athletes to turn to adaptive sport because it doesn’t make you different. It actually gives you more freedom to fit in.”
For Lang, the chance to perform on a world stage is about more than the sport itself, she is an advocate for athletes with unique abilities, hoping to change the narrative that she so often hears, calling paralympic athletes participants instead of competitors.
“Oftentimes, people look at the Paralympics as inspiration instead of aspiration, and we’re trying to change that narrative, because we are high-performing athletes, elite athletes that partake in representing and proudly wearing the maple leaf.”
Canada’s Women’s Sitting Volleyball team will compete starting August 29th.