St. John's wheelchair basketball player Liam Hickey ready for Rio
'We kinda want to get 'em back,' says St. John's player Liam Hickey of U.S. team
Liam Hickey would like a rematch.
The St. John's man is heading to Rio Monday night to play wheelchair basketball at the 2016 Paralympics.
- Canadian Paralympic wheelchair basketball teams announced
- Why Liam Hickey is quickly becoming one of province's top athletes
He'd like nothing more than to square off against the United States, which beat Team Canada at the Parapan Am Games in Toronto last year.
'We kinda want to get 'em back'
"I think that'd set up pretty nice. We kinda want to get 'em back," said Hickey, who plays guard for the Canadian squad.
But the U.S. — which used to dominate the sports — won't be Canada's only competition.
"The powers right now, there's U.S.A., Great Britain, Australia, Germany — there's a lot of really good teams now, so that'll make it pretty interesting going into Rio," he told CBC's St. John's Morning Show on Monday.
He added other nations have dramatically improved their teams in the last five to 10 years.
It's not Hickey's first trip to Brazil; the Canadian team headed to South America in April for a friendly tournament with the Brazilian team — and to get the touristy stuff out of their system before the Paralympics.
"We did a couple sightseeing things, went and saw the Christ the Redeemer statue," he said. "We got our distractions out of the way."
Hickey will switch focus after the tournament to sledge hockey, in which he hopes to represent Canada at the winter Paralympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
'At least we don't have to get in the water'
But for now, his focus is just on basketball, and he said he's not concerned about reports of poor water quality at the Paralympics.
We did a couple sightseeing things … we got our distractions out of the way.- Liam Hickey
"The Canadian Paralympic committee's done a great job of informing us what's going on down there," he said.
"We're pretty comfortable. We know how to be safe, and you take those extra precautions and use common sense and it's generally fine."
Plus, playing wheelchair basketball provides one advantage in that area.
"At least we don't have to get in the water," he said. "We're not swimming, so that's a bonus."
The Paralympics run from Sept. 7 to 18 in Rio de Janeiro.
With files from the St. John's Morning Show