Parapan Am

Indrit Alushani and Craig Deebank have had a behind-the-scenes look at the many things cities must do to make large sporting events such as the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games possible.

The two recent Master of Architecture grads scored contract positions doing what’s known as Games overlay – designing and overseeing the construction of the temporary infrastructure required for venues hosting the Games.

Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies student Josie Harrison spoke with them about their experience, what they have learned about designing venues for accessible international sporting events, and how the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design helped prepare them for their roles.

What exactly is “Games overlay”?

Alushani: Games overlay deals with the temporary infrastructure that is needed to run the Games. This includes but is not limited to commodities and spaces that are necessary to meet the standards of an international sporting event. Overlay managers collaborate closely with stakeholders and others who will use the venue to ensure the space that meets everyone’s requirements.

Deebank: I was told when I started that no venue is 100 per cent ready to host a game. There is always an alteration process that takes place based on the game’s unique standards and protocol. There are a lot of different client groups you have to please at the end of the day within the design and budget parameters you’ve been given.

In some cases, venues are 100 per cent overlay. For example, some venues are constructed over parking lots – such as the beach volleyball venue. The overlay team would bring in the temporary seating, sand, power, platforms, grandstands, broadcast stands and all of the other things required to make the venue and sport function. These are removed at the end of the Games and can be repurposed for other things.

Could you describe your role for the Games?

Alushani: I was first assigned to the East Zone team to help out six site managers who were in charge of designing and delivering the infrastructure of one or more venue. At first you would jump from one task to another, one venue to another. As things progressed I was assigned to assist in the delivery of the President’s Choice Pan Am Ballpark in Ajax where baseball and softball was held, as well as the General Motors Center in Oshawa for the weightlifting and boxing. Lately I've been working at the Abilities Centre in Whitby, which is hosting boccia and judo during the Parapan Am Games.

(Image below: Alushani at President's Choice Pan Am ballpark)

Deebank: As an overlay site manager in the West Zone, I was involved in managing the design of several venues and delivery phase of the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome. It’s a high-pressure environment. One day you’re working on coordinating the Velodrome cycling track; the next day you’re trying to plan the cycling time trial race. During the design phase you jump around from venue to venue, sport to sport, so there’s a lot of learning that takes place. A lot of the people working in our overlay department are architects or architecturally trained. It’s very much like a studio environment. We don’t do physical models, but we sketch a lot and use similar software. So it’s like being in a studio, but you are putting on the Games.

What kind of things did you have to consider when designing overlay with the Parapan Am Games in mind?

Alushani: The Abilities Centre building in Whitby has won a number of awards for design excellence with respect to accessibility. It serves as a center for rehabilitation and is a true celebration of barrier-free design, which made things quite easy for us in overlay as the building was already so well designed for individuals with physical limitations. The striking element in the building is the gradual ramp that starts from the ground floor and leads to the upper level. There was a great level of consideration for ramp slopes or demarcation of raised steps or cable flies in areas with high traffic. I have learned so much about accessible design. It was inspiring to see how design can create so many opportunities and become a means of inclusion.

Deebank: The Cisco Milton Velodrome is both a Pan and Parapan Am venue which I have been stationed at for the duration of the Games – it's a beautiful facility specifically designed to function for large track cycling events and accommodate a variety of accessible needs. During the design phase we had incorporated many barrier-free design features to our verlay spaces in order to reduce the amount of transition required.

In the West Zone, The Mississauga Sport Centre had the most Pan to Parapan changes as the overlay, sport and venue teams had transformed the venue to host combat sports (judo, taikwondo, karate and wrestling) and then wheelchair rugby, powerlifting and goalball. It was really impressive how that team transformed the hockey arenas into their current Games-ready state.

From an overlay perspective, the key things to consider were the Parapan user experience and to find design and cost efficiencies that would work for both Pan and Parapan's needs. I thought the TO2015 Organizing Committee had strong, experienced leadership with Parapan Planning and Integration and were able to help us collaborate through this unique process.

What have you learned from your experience working on overlay for the Games?

Alushani: Where do I even begin? This has been such a unique experience, and I consider myself lucky to have been part of it. Project management is one of the first things that comes to mind: being able to work with schedulers in order to have contractors build on time, meeting budgets and legal requirements, ensuring that the work is conducted safely, communicating and delegating work to a large number of people, from your own contractors to your colleagues. It is a huge role with great responsibility.

Deebank: It’s a very high tempo, fast paced, social, and collaborative environment. You have to be able to think quickly and be adaptable, and that’s been a fun challenge. I worked with many great people who have experience with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the World Cup in Brazil. Hearing what they did in these particular locations and the challenges they faced – be it a labour shortage or the need to use local materials – and how they problem-solved in those cases was really interesting. You learn more about the sports as well. I have spent a lot of time at the Cisco Milton Pan Am / Parapan Am Velodrome in Milton, so I learned a lot about track cycling; it’s incredible what the athletes can do. You don’t know how steep those curved walls are until you see it in person. And then you see the athletes ride at 70 km or more around it – it’s really cool.

(Image below: Deebank at Velodrome)

It has been great to see the large selection of Parapan sports offered. A few days ago I went to watch wheelchair rugby, a.k.a “Murderball,” at the Mississauga Sport Centre. As one would expect with a nickname of “Murderball,” this is a contact sport – those athletes are fierce competitors and can hit really hard! It was really entertaining and an amazing display of athleticism.

Speaking with a few of the athletes, coaches, sport organizers and volunteers throughout the Parapan Am Games, I've had the opportunity to learn about some of the athletes' stories and how they came to specialize in their Parapan sports. It's incredible what these athletes have accomplished and their commitment to their sport.

How did your time at the University of Toronto prepare you for this role?

Alushani: The Daniels Faculty is a world-class school of design in part because it emphasizes on collaboration and creativity. The Faculty welcomes people from different backgrounds both cultural and academic because diversity and collaboration is key to successful design ideas. The Toronto 2015 office has been one of the most diverse offices I have been to. People were coming from all ends of the world with different career backgrounds, working together to create one unique and remarkable final product, the Pan Am games.

Deebank: The Daniels Faculty really promotes the City as an organism, understanding the city, and where architecture and design fits within it. This has stuck with me, and I try to apply it wherever I go. The Faculty also provides a diverse and collaborative environment between landscape architecture, visual studies, urbanism, and architecture, and people coming into these programs with completely varied academic backgrounds. There is a cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving. That, I think, was very applicable to this job. I’m really thankful for what I’ve learned at Daniels, and how I’ve been able to apply it in a professional setting.

(Above: the President’s Choice Pan Am Ballpark in Ajax)

Josie Harrison is a student and Dale Duncan is a writer with the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design where this article originally appeared. Read more news from the Faculty.

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Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with �Թϱ�� doctors

sgupta — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 10:01:52 +0000

Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with �Թϱ�� doctors sgupta Fri, 08/14/2015 - 06:01

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Dr. Amanda Mayo is in the front row, third from right

Carolyn Morris

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Carolyn Morris

The Parapan Am Games in Toronto have reached the home stretch but health professionals from the University of Toronto are still hard at work behind the scenes, keeping the elite athletes at the top of their game.

Dr. Amanda Mayo is a lecturer in physical medicine and rehabilitation (physiatry) and works with amputee patients at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The lead doctor for Para Table Tennis at the Games, she also serves as a Paralympic classifier for athletics in Ontario, attending track and field events and training facilities to classify new athletes entering Paralympic sport.

Dr. Lee Schofield, a physician at the �Թϱ��’s David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic, is serving as lead physician for the Para-athletics venue.

The Faculty of Medicine's Carolyn Morris spoke with Mayo and Schofield about their work behind the scenes at and the legacy of the Parapan Am Games.

Mayo:

As a physiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, I see several para-athletes who are amputees – including para wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball players. Many �Թϱ�� faculty in sports medicine and physiatry are lead physicians and medical team members at the Games. The medical team has strong expertise in para sport providing excellent evidence based care for athletes. Many have been involved in research of performance and outcome measures for physically disabled populations.

The Games have inspired many of my patients to get involved with more physical activity and parasport. I feel the best Games legacy is the great new accessible fitness facilities that are going to be available for people with physical disabilities. In my practice we’ve been implementing supervised circuit training and recreational therapy. Our rehabilitation team has developed these programs with the goal patients will gain skills and confidence to use community centres with accessible pools and fitness equipment. We now have MAR-Atos in Markham, the University of Toronto Scarborough’s Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, and Whitby Abilities Centre.

Previously Variety Village was the only major accessible local fitness centre, so this is huge for Toronto and the GTA.

Schofield:

I was part of the Canadian medical team for the Pan Am Games, and I am the lead physician for the Para-Athletics venue for the Parapan Am Games. In my daily life, I work as a family doctor at St. Michael's Hospital, and as a sport and exercise medicine physician at the University of Toronto’s David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic and at PIVOT Sport Medicine & Orthopedics. I also have athletes who compete in athletics and wheelchair basketball in my family practice, and have worked with para-triathlon and wheelchair basketball events in the past.

In many ways para-athletes have the same types of problems as other elite athletes. They’ve typically adapted well to using whatever specialized equipment they require, and the things we see them for are often not related to their disability. Sometimes athletes with prosthetics do have skin-related issues like pressure sores or skin breakdown. And thermal regulation can be an issue for patients with spinal cord injury.

We also see compensatory issues when athletes overuse certain parts of their bodies – for example we see rotator cuff injuries that come from using the upper body extensively. Parasport is great from a sports medicine perspective because of the different approaches to tackling a problem – the solution could be a matter of modifying equipment, modifying how the athlete uses the equipment, or working on their muscle imbalances.

Elite parasport performance and preparation also has a significant ripple effect on non-athletes living with disabilities. It shows the public and non-athletes how they can manage their injury or chronic disease and build strength, function and performance.

For example, the Canadian Armed Forces program Soldier On supports service personnel and veterans to overcome their physical or mental illness through physical activity and sport. It’s a fantastic program that can introduce or re-introduce active people into sport (and often they can get into elite parasport) after a devastating injury.

The technology developed to support these athletes can trickle down into the non-elite or non-athlete community. It’s mind-blowing when you consider what was available when Terry Fox had a leg amputation for osteosarcoma to the prosthetics that exist now for athletes and the general population.

And it’s been huge as well for parasport in general – with over 1,600 athletes from 28 countries competing, this is the largest Parapan Am Games to date. And while it all wraps up at the closing ceremonies on Saturday, it will leave its mark on accessibility in Toronto.

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Celebrating the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games

sgupta — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 09:42:37 +0000

Celebrating the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games sgupta Wed, 08/12/2015 - 05:42

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�Թϱ�� Hall of Fame athlete Joanne Berdan (Bouw) and �Թϱ��'s Pan Am/Parapan Am Special Ambassador David Onley celebrate at City Hall (all photos by James Poremba)

Brianna Goldberg

Author legacy

Brianna Goldberg

Parapan Am: “Pick a sport you've never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

David Onley, �Թϱ��'s Special Ambassador to the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, said the success of the Games is the result of years of planning and partnerships across the GTA. He celebrated the multitude of volunteers, including “University of Toronto staff, students, faculty and alumni of every description.”

Onley said he threw his agreement behind commentator speculation that the Games, even as they continue, have already proved to be a success. He described the event as embodying the values of athleticism, competition, collegiality, inclusiveness as well as the spirit of camaraderie.

Onley: Parasport is on the rise and here's why

To that point, Onley reflected on his experience watching one of the Parapan swimming competitions where a last-placed athlete finished a full lap and a half behind the other competitors – and yet received a standing ovation when he reached the final marker.

“Minor detail, he didn’t have any legs. He swam the whole race just with arm strength,” said Onley.

“This is an indication of the impact that Parapan has on people.”

(Above: sibling musical group DEYSofficial, including UTSC students, perform their original song at the �Թϱ�� Parapan Am reception.) (Read more about DEYSofficial and watch a video of the Pan Am/Parapan Am song they composed by clicking through to the end of this Pan Am highlights story.)

Onley added that the Parapan games were conceived for exactly this purpose, “bringing people of the Americas together in fellowship, in friendly competition at the highest level,” and to help the world see “absolutely amazing athletes who just happen to have a disability.”

“I believe we are at a kind of tipping point. When we watch high-level parasport competitions we see awe-inspiring athletic performance. The reality of the disability comes afterward,” said Onley.

“And that’s ultimately the goal of all social and government policy relating to accessibility: to see the ability of the person and take the disability as just another aspect of their personal characteristics alongside such things as hair colour and eye colour.”

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Parapan Am preview: “Pick a sport you’ve never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

sgupta — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 13:36:27 +0000

Parapan Am preview: “Pick a sport you’ve never seen before and prepare to be amazed” sgupta Wed, 08/05/2015 - 09:36

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Sitting volleyball is one of the events hosted by the University of Toronto Scarborough (photo by Matthew Murnaghan/Canadian Paralympic Committee)

Brianna Goldberg

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Brianna Goldberg

Champion for sport: meet alumna and paracyclist Shelley Gautier

sgupta — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 10:00:06 +0000

Champion for sport: meet alumna and paracyclist Shelley Gautier sgupta Wed, 08/05/2015 - 06:00

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Shelley Gautier in July, after being chosen for the Parapan Am team (photo by Eric Thibault/Canadian Paralympic Committee)

Janet Rowe

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Janet Rowe

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Global Lens

David Onley: parasport is on the rise and here’s why

sgupta — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 09:42:04 +0000

David Onley: parasport is on the rise and here’s why sgupta Wed, 08/05/2015 - 05:42

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The Honourable David Onley, Special Ambassador for the Pan Am and Parapan American Games, at the state-of-the-art Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre at University of Toronto Scarborough (photo by Ken Jones)

Brianna Goldberg

Author legacy

Brianna Goldberg

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“No longer just an afterthought, but worthy of its own coverage and its own place in the sporting pantheon”

With the largest-ever Parapan Am Games set to launch in Toronto on August 7, David Onley – Ontario’s former Lieutenant Governor and �Թϱ��’s Special Ambassador for the games – says some of the most exciting competitions have yet to hit the field.“

Parasport is experiencing a “tipping point moment” in terms of audience interest and support, Onley says, adding that in such a moment of change lies a powerful opportunity to transform cultural attitudes.

“Until you have seen a blind swimmer, until you have seen athletes competing in wheelchair rugby or wheelchair basketball, you don’t realize and can’t appreciate the raw athleticism of these individuals,” said Onley, in his preview to the Parapan Games for �Թϱ��.

“As you watch that and get caught up in the excitement of the competition itself, it’s only when the play is finished and the applause dies down that the secondary aspect of it being a parasport hits you with a wallop.”

Onley explained his view of the trend ahead of the final week of competition at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.

London 2012 was the breakthrough Olympics for parasport – and interest is only getting stronger

Over the last number of years, probably the last 10 or 12 years, the impact of the Paralympics and the Parapan Games has increased quite dramatically. Here in Canada, Vancouver 2010 saw a significant growth in the television audience for parasport compared to Beijing in 2008 – and those numbers were already pretty good. But London’s 2012 paralympic games shattered ratings of any prior games, making them comparable in the coverage with that of the Olympic games.

It raised everyone’s awareness that parasport was no longer just an afterthought, but worthy of its own coverage and its own place in the sporting pantheon. Previously, the layers of sport were major league, minor league, amateur. Parasports, I would say candidly, were last to public consciousness – until Vancouver and London raised awareness to the point where people want to see and participate in these events simply because they know they’re going to see significant athletic displays.

Parasport’s transformative power thrives on education, policy, impact of broadcast on TV and web

Here in Ontario, increasingly awareness has come about from the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the growth in courses at post-secondary levels (I’m thinking of programs at York, Windsor, Brock, Western and others, including a course I’m teaching this fall at UTSC on the politics of disability).

This combines with many other layers of support, including advocacy, government studies and more. But I believe the collective impact on a society is that, where all these other non-sport-related activities have been going on, we see athletic events on television and see that these are not disabled people who are attempting to put on some sort of an athletic demonstration or deserve sympathy. What we see instead are significant athletes who just happen to have a disability. And that’s a major shift, a significant shift.

When I see a blind skier shooting down the slopes with their guide alongside them, giving directions on where to turn and how hard to cut, I’m just blown away. I’m not thinking, “Well, look at that fine blind person.” I’m thinking, “How did that person do that?!”

Compare that to me sitting on a sit-ski device, which I have used in the past to go down the bunny hill and ended up breathless… to then watch athletes competing at that level, notwithstanding the fact of their disability, it’s quite a thing to see.

But what you’re looking at with these high-level parasport competitions is the athletic performance – the reality of the disability comes afterwards, or is put to the side. And that, ultimately, is the goal of all social and government policy relating to disability: to see the ability of the person, and take their disability as just another aspect of their personal characteristics alongside things like hair colour or eye colour.

Audience ratings continue to drive a positive feedback loop of support and interest in parasport

I would like to think Rio will be a very interesting test as to how far things can progress and it’s not that far down the road. London was the breakout event in terms of television coverage for parasport (and it’s too bad that we have to measure success on the basis of TV but it is a good measure). Since most of us won’t be able to get to Rio, we will be relying on TV.

Television responds to public demand. Public demand is what added additional hours of coverage by the CBC in the past few weeks to the Toronto Pan Am Games. And if public demand is there, there will be increased coverage of parasports, too, which leads to greater acceptance within the entire culture and community.

Canada is unique in its legacy of parasport heroes like Terry Fox and Rick Hansen

We are unique as a country that when we have any list of the top 10 or 20 icons or personalities in Canadian history that Terry Fox and Rick Hansen are always included. We’re the only place on the planet that has that. They truly were trailblazers and, in many ways, Rick continues to be with the ongoing contributions he’s making to spinal cord research.

They set the tone and they set the way and for athletes made it that much easier to get involved and be accepted. That’s what I hope will come about as we go through the ParaPans and Rio: that people will take it as an opportunity to see athletes who just happen to have a disability as opposed to tuning in with a sympathetic attitude, which, in a bygone era, was definitely the case.

The sympathy angle was a part of the cultural reality. It’s been a long, long process to be accepted as individuals and the athletes who have participated in these sports are the ones able to do that to a very real extent.

They capture the public’s imagination and attention. They keep up the process of changing attitudes from where people with disabilities receive sympathy to instead turn it to what it should be, where it’s just another part of the human condition. We still have a way to go on that, but parasport has a significant role to play.

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Parapan Am

These alumni helped set the stage (literally) for the Parapan and Pan Am Games

Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with �Թϱ��� doctors

Celebrating the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games

Read more about Berdan's induction into the �Թϱ��� Hall of Fame

Parapan Am: “Pick a sport you've never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

Onley: Parasport is on the rise and here's why

Parapan Am preview: “Pick a sport you’ve never seen before and prepare to be amazed”

Champion for sport: meet alumna and paracyclist Shelley Gautier

David Onley: parasport is on the rise and here’s why

Behind the scenes of the Parapan Am Games with �Թϱ�� doctors

Read more about Berdan's induction into the �Թϱ�� Hall of Fame