Last hurrah for Krempien
(Taken from the September 26, 2007 St. Albert Gazette)

A national team veteran of three Paralympic gold medals and four Gold Cup world championships will end her illustrious wheelchair basketball career at the 2008 Beijing games.J Krempien

"It just feels like the right time," Jen Krempien told the Gazette Monday while visiting family in St. Albert.

"It’s become challenging managing training fulltime and trying to have a career, trying to finish school and trying to maintain some sort of family life. It was great as a 20- or 25-year-old but now it’s a lot."

Krempien, 32, made the difficult decision during a timeout from her busy schedule.

"I took a week off earlier this spring and did nothing — no training, no basketball — and it was such a treat for me to do goofy things like go to a movie on a week night and go out for dinner and be able to stay out past 11:00, knowing you’re not getting up at 6:00 to go train. It was just a great week, whereas before by the third day I would have been eager to get back and feeling guilty for not training," explained the Richmond-based athlete.

"It’s definitely the right decision for me right now. I’ve accomplished a lot and developed a lot in my game. I’ve also enjoyed mentoring young athletes.

"I love playing the game and that certainly won’t change."

Krempien suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of five. With no trunk muscles and unable to rotate, she is classified as a 1.0 player in the sport. Classifications range from 1.0 to 4.5 based on the level of ability. Out of the five players on the floor, a team is allowed 14 points. Someone with a minimal disability would rate a 4.5.

Paralympics debut

Krempien has been a Team Canada mainstay since her international debut at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona as 17-year-old fresh out of Paul Kane High School.

"It’s snuck up on me quickly," said the product of the Northern Lights junior program.

"I had gone to the [selection] camp but I wasn’t really trying out. I was there for the experience. I knew I wanted to be a part of the team but was not thinking for ’92 because I was so young but then I was listed as an alternate and before I knew it I was sort of on my way to Barcelona. I hadn’t really gone through that whole anticipation of trying to make the team, but by the next selection camp
I was quite confident I would be part of the team."

Krempien went on to make major contributions towards Team Canada’s Paralympic victories in 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Sydney.

She is now gearing up for her fifth Paralympics and the first games since Canada settled for a disappointing bronze in 2004 at Athens.

"I’m just training and competing and really doing everything I can to prepare to play great in Beijing," said Krempien, who plays club hoops for the Edmonton Inferno, the four-time defending Canadian Wheelchair Basketball league champions.

"My goal is to enjoy every single moment and just to really savour each experience and to memory bank it all and add that to the 15 years and just have a really good time."

Leading up to the Sept. 6-17 Paralympics is a slew of exhibitions against United States collegiate wheelchair teams, a January tournament in Beijing, the second annual Friendship Games Osaka Cup in Japan in February and a pre-Paralympic staging event in Germany prior to the games.

"It’s a busy schedule and that’s one of the reasons why school has taken a back burner and I’m not working this year."

The graduate student of human nutrition at the University of British Columbia worked as a clinical pediatric dietitian at the B.C. Children’s Hospital. Next year she will finish her Masters of Science in human nutrition and will complete her thesis project on the nutritional needs of athletes with spinal cord injuries.

The rest of the world is slowly catching up to Canada after the team won an unprecedented three consecutive Paralympic gold medals. At the Four Nations Tournament in June in Sydney, Canada finished third overall.

"The Germans are probably our toughest competition right now and then the U.S. team [2004 Paralympic champions] and the Australians. Realistically we’re going to play Germany or the U.S. in the semifinals [at Beijing] so it’s going to be a tough go this time. Nothing is given."

ParaPanAmericans

At last month’s Paralympic qualifier at the ParaPanAmerican Games in Rio de Janeiro, Canada lost twice to the United States by scores of 57-43 in the round robin and 50-44 in the final. Brazil and Mexico also qualified for Beijing.

"We didn’t train to sort of peak at that event," said the MVP at the 2007 Osaka Cup

"It was disappointing to lose to the U.S. but we certainly performed well and did some things really well. We just need to tighten up on those turnovers and a little bit on our defence, which are easy adjustments to make."

Canada took a mixture of newcomers and seasoned vets like Krempien to Rio. Eighteen talented players are vying for roster spots. The selection camp for Beijing is in April.

"There could be quite a few changes and the goal for those upcoming events is to make sure everybody gets a good chance to play together. That’s really part of the selection process for us," said the all-star guard at the 1998 and 2002 Gold Cups.

Team Canada competed at Rio without standout Danielle Peers. The former high school basketball player with the Paul Kane Blues in the mid-1990s suffers from muscular dystrophy. She was forced to withdraw from the Rio games over health problems that restricted her breathing.

The high scoring centre was named MVP at the 2006 Gold Cup. She was also awarded the inaugural Canadian Basketball Outstanding Athlete award, edging out both male and female athletes of both the running and wheelchair version of the sport. She is also a finalist for the Women’s Sports Foundation 2007 Sportswoman of the Year award.

"She can score and we missed that. Defensively she is one of the smartest players on the court and that showed too. Her replacements were not quite as sharp defensively."

A defensive stalwart during her national team tenure, Krempien continues to chip in offensively. Against the Americans she shot 4-for-6 in the round robin and 3-for-3 in the final.

"I’m happy with how I played in the U.S. games. It’s not my job to score but I shot well and played some really good defence."

Krempien was also honoured as the Canadian flag bearer for the opening ceremonies. Athletes were asked by the Canadian Paralympic Committee to nominate someone from their sport for the prestigious position.

"It was really such a privilege to be selected among such a group of talented athletes. To represent not only my team but my country and the whole delegation of [92] athletes was so cool," she said.

"What was really neat about it was that out of all the countries I was the only female athlete selected for a flag bearer. It’s great that our country can represent all athletes and it’s not quite the male dominated environment."
jhansen@stablert.greatwest.ca

home
top