Puisand Lai’s upcoming academic year will start differently than most. The mechanical engineering student will be in Paris representing Canada on the Paralympic Women’s Basketball Team.

This is the second Paralympic Games for 24-year-old Lai, who has been playing for a decade. But it took some time for her to embrace the sport. When her mom first signed her up for house league in Brampton, she questioned the point of “trying to throw a circular object into another circular object.”

But it wasn’t long before she realized that not only is the sport is highly complex, but she is a natural, and her life was enriched by the sense of community she’d found.

“I saw it as something that I could invest my energy in,” she says. “And I was surrounded by a community of people with disabilities who were not only succeeding in sport, but in life with professional jobs and families.

“It inspired me to think about what might be possible for me.”

Still, she never imagined the places her sport would take her: Highlights include being tapped for the national team right out of high school, competing at the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020 and captaining the U-25 national women’s team.

Lai is also featured in the Canadian version of the best-selling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, alongside author Margaret Atwood and entrepreneur and activist Viola Desmond.

Global experiences through basketball

After starting her first year at McMaster in 2018 and discovering an interest in mechanical engineering, Lai worked at an engineering firm in Germany as an intern and played in a professional co-ed wheelchair basketball league.

Playing pro for the first time, and one of only two women on her team, Lai says the experience was transformative.

“We were travelling every weekend for games and the play was at a whole new level,” she says.

“It was primarily a men’s league, so the physicality was different, and I had to adapt my strengths to it and rely on more than just my speed and defensive skills.”

Leaving that experience with a faster game and a flawless pick and roll, Lai felt ready to get back to training with the national team for the Paralympic stage.

After Canada’s fifth-place finish in Tokyo, Lai is ready for a rematch with powerhouse teams like the Netherlands and China. And unlike the Tokyo Games, where the pandemic affected fan turnout, the stands will be full of fans, including Lai’s twin sister and parents.

“I know we have what it takes this time.”

An ambassador for the sport

The qualities that make Lai’s game so formidable — her drive, her willingness to learn and her openness to feedback — have also served her well in her engineering studies.

“I push my hardest in every practice, even when I was learning and didn’t understand all the complexities of the game,” she says.

“My ability to take feedback well and listen is a skill that’s often overlooked in a lot of areas, but it allows me to learn quickly and show my potential.”

Honing a quiet confidence, as Lai describes it, hasn’t limited her from leadership roles on national teams.

“I’m not the most vocal player on the court but I lead by example,” she says.

Outside of making a strong impression on her Paralympic teammates, Lai wants Canadians tuning into the Olympics to also support the Paralympic Games and to give wheelchair basketball a chance.

“I don’t want it to be seen as a pity sport. It’s professional, physical and intense,” she says.

“We have a great following of people who do appreciate how strategic and exciting it is. Give it a watch. Go into it with an open mind.”

Visit the Paralympic Games wheelchair basketball schedule

Bookmark this page for CBC’s Paralympic schedule and where to watch