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On Wednesday at the 2022 Canada Summer Games from Niagara, Ont, Kyrell Sopotyk won a bronze medal in the 1,500m wheelchair event.
The 19-year-old, competing for Team Saskatchewan, is just a year and a half removed from a devastating spinal injury.
Back in January of 2021, the then Kamloops Blazers forward fell in a snowboarding accident, which fractured his T5 vertebrae which caused paralysis from the waist down.
The native of Aberdeen, Sask, Sopotyk grew up playing hockey for the Sask Valley Vipers, then the Prince Albert Mintos. After being drafted by the Blazers in the fifth round (103rd overall) of the 2016 Bantam Draft, Sopotyk played two seasons for Kamloops in 2018 and 2019, scoring 45 points in 107 regular season games.
Sopotyk has thrown himself into athletic competition since his accident, competing in racing and wheelchair basketball.
In the Summer Games competition, Sopotyk has competed in the 1,500m and 100m final and will be in the final of the 400m event on Saturday.
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