Robert Fisher
Staff Reporter
PEMBROKE – For Jolan Wong, earning a bronze medal with her team in sitting volleyball at the Summer Paralympic Games in Paris was the culmination of 16 years of dedication, hard work and sacrifice.
“For me, it was 16 years in the making to finally get that paralympic medal,” she said. The feeling took time to sink in and for Wong to grasp the full meaning of the achievement. Her family was with her in Paris, “I finally have something to show for all the moments I’ve been away,” or all the time she dragged them to the gym and the early morning workouts. “Just having something to show for all that work we’ve put in.”
Wong also represented Canada in sitting volleyball at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.
Sitting volleyball is similar to the regular game with a few key differences. The court is smaller, a little over a third of the size of a standing volleyball court. The net for women is 1.05 metres high compared to 2.24 metres and players must keep some part of their torso in contact with the floor most of the time. There are some exceptions for digging the ball but the player has to go back to having their torso on the floor right away after digging the ball. A dig is a lunge where the player contacts the ball just before it hits the floor. In standing volleyball, the server’s foot cannot cross the back line. In sitting volleyball, the legs can be over the line but the buttocks must stay behind.
Viewers of sitting volleyball may see players walk on and off the court. There are two classifications of players. SV1 players have a permanent impairment. SV2 players have an impairment that may or may not be permanent and they must be reassessed regularly to determine if they still meet the criteria to play a parasport. A team can have two SV2 players and only one of those can be on the court at a time.
Fully able-bodied players can play sitting volleyball at the recreational level, they just have to restrict themselves to the same level of movement as the para athletes. Wong said she has worked with players in the Vikings club and at the military base to play sitting volleyball and they’ve told her it can help them improve aspects of their game because the can isolate upper body movements with the legs out of the equation.
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