Richard Peter (Paralympian)

^[1]Richard 'Bear' Peter (born September 10, 1972) is a Canadian First Nations wheelchair basketball player. Peter was born in Duncan, British Columbia, and currently resides in Vancouver. When Richard was four years old, he was injured in a bus accident, leaving him in a wheelchair ever since. He began playing wheelchair basketball at the age of 15 when he was inspired by a team that came to his school and introduced him to wheelchair sports. Since then, Peter has competed in the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, winning the gold metal for wheelchair basketball for three of those years.^[2]

Personal life

Richard Peter grew up in British Columbia’s largest First Nations community, the Cowichan Tribes reserve and he became a paraplegic when he was run over by a bus at the age of four.^[3] He began playing wheelchair basketball at 15 and was on the Canadian national team in 1994 when he was 22 years old.^[3] Peter married fellow wheelchair basketball player and Vancouver native, Marni Abbott (now Marni Abbott-Peter), in 2005 after the two met through wheelchair basketball in 1994.^[4] During Richard Peters time in Beijing on the Canadian Paralympic Team, he was the only First Nations athlete on the team.~~~~^[1]

Career

For most of his 18-year career, Peter was a senior member of Canada’s National Wheelchair Basketball team.^[3] In 1996, Peter’s second year with the team, Canada came in fifth in the Atlanta Paralympics. Peter helped lead Canada to gold in three Paralympic Games, the first being Sydney in 2000, then Athens in 2004 and finally, London in 2012.^[2] Peter fell short of a gold in 2008 in Beijing when the Canadian national team was defeated by Australia. He and the team won the world championship title in 2006 and he was a member of British Columbia’s provincial team which has won five consecutive national championships. He spent the last two years of his career playing semi-pro wheelchair basketball in Germany and Italy.^[3][5] Peter had also won in the United States a national title.~~~~^[1]

Richard Peter retired in 2012 at the age of 40, after an 18-year career spent representing his country in international and Paralympic competitions and was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.^[3] In 2010, Peter was awarded the national Tom Longboat Award that was established to recognize Aboriginal athletes for their outstanding contributions to sport in Canada^[6]. Peter was awarded the Indspire Award in the Sport category in 2012.^[7] During Richard Peters career, he was known for his determination, commitment and focus, on and off the court, he was a role model to both young and old people and was a positive aspect to the team.~~~~^[1]

Paralympic Achievements

In 1994, after Richard Peter made the Senior Men's National Team, on Team Canada, he became an important player for their team. From his first game to his last game he made his nation proud with winning a great deal of medals, and he even won them back-to-back.~~~~^[1]

References