One of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash survivors’ sporting journeys is far from over, despite being paralyzed from the waist down.
Former Broncos goalie Jacob Wassermann will be competing in the upcoming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in the rowing event that begins Friday.
Wassermann, one of the 13 survivors of the 2018 bus crash, is Canada’s only competitor in the sport at the Games, according to the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
According to a biography from the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Wassermann did not discover para rowing until late 2022. By 2023, he had already won a gold medal at the Canadian Para Rowing Championships and a silver medal at the 2024 World Rowing Americas Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Rio de Janeiro. The latter medal earned him his spot in the men’s single sculls at the upcoming Paralympics.
The bus crash survivor said he tried rowing initially by joining a session at the Saskatoon Rowing Club because he thought it would be a good workout.
“It was the hardest workout I’d ever done — pre-injury or post-,” said Wassermann. “You got to be a little bit crazy, I think, to be a rower and to enjoy some of the pain that comes with it and that comes with the training and with the racing. But it’s a bit of a thrill to be out there and on the water doing things that I wasn’t doing before I was injured.”
Wassermann’s quick rise was a mix of hard work, talent, and luck.
He said he went to Rio de Janeiro’s competition for experience. He knew it was a Paralympic qualifier but did not expect to qualify.
“I was just going out there to get some practice racing against other athletes in the same classification and we, like I said, kind of got lucky,” said Wassermann. “Things fell into place, and I ended up getting a silver out there and qualifying for Paris, and then things went kind of into overdrive for preparing five years earlier than what we were ready for.”
The young athlete’s coach, John Wetzstein, said Wassermann can reach the speeds required to win.
“It’s about doing the work necessary to sustain those speeds. It’s exciting that he’s actually shown the capacity to go as fast as we’re going to need him to go,” said Wetzstein.
Wassermann said he’s proud of his accomplishments in the last two years and how far he’s come.
“I want to show up and perform or give a performance that I’m proud of,” he said.
One of the most devastating highway tragedies in Canadian history sparked a wave of nationwide support. People across the country propped up their hockey sticks outside their doors to honour the players who were killed.
A GoFundMe campaign launched to support the Broncos and their families became the most successful in Canadian history, raising over $10 million in the first week and surpassing $15 million by the time it closed.
A federal judge previously upheld the deportation of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the truck driver responsible for the deadly crash, dismissing his applications to stay in Canada.
Calgary Liberal MP George Chahal is trying to stop the deportation, arguing that Sidhu’s family needs him and that his young child has a heart and lung condition that requires neonatal care and attention.
A logbook review found that Sidhu violated 51 federal and 19 Saskatchewan regulations between Mar. 26 and Apr. 6, 2018, the day of the crash.
The following procedural steps on Sidhu’s deportation will take months or years.
