Body of man found after rooftop parking lot gave way into office below in Vancouver

Surfing is California’s official state sport and Canadian para surfer Victoria Feige wants Los Angeles to prove it in 2028.

The five-time women’s world champion is at the forefront of a lobby to get her sport included in the 2028 Paralympics.

LA’s organizing committee has said it would not propose para surfing as a new sport for the event because of “cost and complexity.”

That dumbfounded Feige. California has hosted every world para surfing championship since the first in 2015.

“I was devastated,” Feige said. “I have been hearing about the movement toward the Paralympics for para surfing since 2018.

“I won my first world title and I was urine-tested right after according to WADA anti-doping regulations. It felt important, progressive and we had this momentum.”

There are nine para surf classifications encompassing missing limbs, prosthetics, paralysis and visual impairment.

The 39-year-old Feige competes in the women’s kneeling classification. She mistimed a jump while snowboarding in Colorado at age 18, fractured vertebrae in her spine and was paralyzed below the waist.

“I have been so lucky and grateful to be able to surf again and find a community and compete for my country and reach the highest levels and push my sport forward in ways I never considered,” Feige said. “While I am in still sort of the prime of my life, I would like to help my sport reach this global stage and I would love to compete for Canada and win the gold for Canada.”

The International Surfing Association has turned its attention to Brisbane in 2032, but Feige isn’t giving up on 2028.

A “Save Paralympic Surfing L.A. 2028” petition started by para surfer Jack Bogle has almost 27,000 signatures.

Feige has appeared in videos with surfing star Kelly Slater and musician Jack Johnson, who have endorsed para surfing for Paralympic inclusion.

She’s planning a California outdoor wave pool event following November’s world championship “as a proof of concept to show that para surfing can be held in LA in 2028,” Feige said.

“It’s like a football field and a big hydraulic press that creates a surfable wave on demand,” Feige explained. “It’s standardized and they’ve had surfing pro level competitions there before. I’m wondering if it’s an option to make it more cost-effective and logistically easy to incorporate it into the Games.”

Canadian wheelchair rugby co-captain Trevor Hirschfield, who competed in his fifth Paralympics in Paris, gave para surfing a try in 2020 because he wanted an outdoor sport to pursue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year later, he was on a board at the world championship in Pismo Beach, California, in the prone 2 division, in which athletes require assistance to catch a wave and get on a board safely.

“I’ve been to Paralympics and world championships before and I thought the world para surf championships were amazing,” Hirschfield said. “California, LA hosting the Games and not picking up para surfing is a big miss on their part.”

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After finishing fourth in a deep Copa America run, coach Jesse Marsch and the 40th-ranked Canadian men now get to test themselves against the three top-ranked teams in CONCACAF.

The run of friendlies starts Saturday against the 16th-ranked U.S. in Kansas City, a matchup the Canadians go into with a “bit of swagger,” according to Marsch.

“You see that they’ve grown. There’s more self-confidence,” Marsch said in a virtual availability Friday. “That they believe in themselves. They believe in the process that’s been created. They’re all committed, all the way.

“It’s a great team to work with, in terms of the mentality, the work ethic, the commitment to play for the national team. It’s a real special group. And it gives us the opportunity and optimism that we can continue to get better.”

After the Americans, Canada faces No. 17 Mexico on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, before hosting No. 35 Panama on Oct. 15 at Toronto’s BMO Field.

And while all three games are friendlies, it’s a chance to make a mark.

“The U.S. has established itself as the best team in the region,” said Marsch, a former U.S. international. “Even though Canada won the (CONCACAF) qualifying group for (the 2022) World Cup, I still think that everyone knows that with the resources, with the size of the country, with the establishment of what the sport has been in the United States, that this is a big measuring stick for us.”

Saturday marks Canada’s first action since a penalty shootout loss to No. 11 Uruguay in the July 13 third-place game at Copa America.

Canada is 1-3-4 — albeit against elite opposition, including a pair of 2-0 losses to top-ranked Argentina — since Marsch took the reins, with one of those ties turning into the shootout loss to Uruguay and another into a shootout win over No. 37 Venezuela in the Copa quarterfinal.

The two North American rivals last met in July 2023 when the U.S., under former coach Gregg Berhalter, defeated Canada in a penalty shootout in Cincinnati after the Gold Cup quarterfinal finished knotted at 2-2. The previous month, the U.S. blanked Canada and then-coach John Herdman 2-0 in the CONCACAF Nations League final in Las Vegas.

The U.S. are currently led by assistant coach Mikey Varas with former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino reportedly the favourite to become the permanent replacement for Berhalter, who was fired July 10 after the Americans failed to survive the Copa America group stage.

“I think Canada had a good run in Copa America and we had a disappointing run,” Varas said Friday. “And that’s pretty much where it’s left for me.

“We know that we’re showing up here with the objective of showing who we are. We want to show ourselves who we are but show everybody else who we are. And that’s all we’ve really been focused on.”

The U.S. goes into Saturday’s game with a 17-10-13 record against Canada.

The Canadian men’s last win over the U.S. was in January 2022, a 2-0 decision in World Cup qualifying play in Hamilton. Their last victory over the Americans on U.S. soil was in July 1957, a 3-2 World Cup qualifying victory in St. Louis.

“I don’t think it’s really important,” Canada captain Alphonso Davies said of that history. “Every single game that we play, we want to win. Obviously playing the U.S. in the U.S. is a big game. Every time Canada plays the U.S., a lot of people tune in.”

Watching the U.S. lift the Nations League trophy after beating Canada last year in Las Vegas is motivation enough “to go out there and try and do something that hasn’t been done in a long time,” he added.

“I think we’re ready for it. And we’re prepared for the occasion.”

The Americans go into Saturday’s contest with an 8-0-2 record at Children’s Mercy Park, where they have outscored their opposition 20-2.

Marsch’s squad includes uncapped midfielders Niko Sigur (Hadjuk Split, Croatia) and Nathan Saliba (CF Montreal) and forward Stephen Afrifa(Sporting Kansas City).

Sigur, born in Burnaby, B.C., with parents of Croatian descent, represented Croatia at youth level but has switched international allegiance to Canada. The Toronto-born Afrifa was also eligible for Ghana.

The 20-year-old Salibaand 21-year-old Columbus forward Jacen Russell-Rowe have come in for the injured Sam Adekugbe and Theo Bair. York United assistant coach Mauro Eustaquio, the older bother of vice-captain Stephen Eustaquio, has been added to Marsch’s coaching staff for the September window.

The U.S. brought in Chivas Guadalajara midfielder Cade Cowell to replace the injured Gio Reyna. The American roster includes uncapped defender Marlon Fossey (Standard Liege, Belgium) and goalkeeper Diego Kochen (FC Barcelona B).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024

PARIS – Canadian wheelchair racer Cody Fournie doesn’t love the limelight, but he raced into it at the Paralympic Games in Paris.

Fournie won the T51 men’s 100 metres Friday at Stade de France to become a double gold medallist in his Paralympic debut.

The 35-year-old from Victoria also won Tuesday’s 200 metres. Fournie took the 100 in a Paralympic-record time of 19.63 seconds.

“It means the world to me,” Fournie said.

The work he and coach Geoff Harris did on Fournie’s starts since he took silver in the 100 in May’s world para athletics championship in Kobe, Japan, was evident Friday.

The Canadian rocketed off the start line and no competitor could catch him.

“It was just a new technique Geoffrey and I worked on since Kobe, Japan,” Fournie said. “It was quick frequency leading into longer strides.”

Fournie thrived on the track, but was uncomfortable with the attention his success brought.

“I don’t know how to take it,” he said. “The new-found fame is not something I’m used to. I’m better one on one. I don’t like people staring at me and looking at me. I definitely don’t like talking to all these reporters.”

Earlier Friday, Toronto discus thrower Jesse Zesseu claimed a silver medal.

The 25-year-old put the disappointment of the 2023 world para athletics championship in Paris behind him with a 53.24-metre toss that put him on the podium in his first Paralympic Games.

“I was here last year in exactly the same city, Paris, at the Stade Charlety and I triple faulted. It was the worst moment in my life and I cried,” Zesseu said.

“I cried again now in Paris but for a different reason, a good reason.”

He was just over four metres shy of Tolibboy Yuldashev from Uzbekistan, whose gold-medal throw travelled 57.28 metres.

Bronze medallist Haider Ali of Pakistan threw 52.54.

“Over there, Yuldashev (set a personal best) by six metres; I love that guy. It’s incredible to have this feeling of being here,” Zesseu said. “The crowd was insane.”

Zesseu competes in the men’s F37 classification. He has mild cerebral palsy from a stroke at birth, which limits function on the right side of his body.

He came to para sport as an adult and was encouraged to explore his Paralympic potential while working for Cerebral Palsy Ontario.

“Everything in the last three years since I started para sport was to do this. I have no words, it’s just incredible,” Zesseu said.

Fournie’s neck was broken at age 11 when he was run over by a truck while he was crossing the road in Kamloops, B.C., which rendered him a quadriplegic.

His wife Abigail didn’t travel to Paris because the couple have another trip planned for October.

“We’re saving our money to go to Mexico,” Fournie explained. “I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money for her to come and watch me for a minute and stay at an Airbnb all by herself.”

He was the only man in Friday’s sprint final to go under 20 seconds.

“I attribute my success to my faith in Christ, my hard work in training and the team at the West Hub in Victoria,” Fournie said.

“They have helped me tremendously get here and work on everything I need to work on.”

Silver medallist Peter Genyn of Belgium finished in 20.47 seconds and Toni Piispanen of Finland took bronze in 21.14.

Fournie was born in Rimbey, Alta., but the former wheelchair rugby player lives in Victoria where he’s been training at Athletics Canada’s West Hub on the Camosun College camps since 2021.

Nate Reich, the reigning Paralympic champion in the men’s T38 1,500 metres, and wheelchair racer Austin Smeenk, who won a T34 100-metre bronze in Paris, also train there.

Reich will attempt to defend his title and Smeenk races the 800 metres in Saturday’s track and field finale.

Fournie’s medal was Canada’s seventh, and fourth gold, at the track. Brent Lakatos won the men’s T53 800 metres and Greg Stewart the F46 men’s shot put.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.