A Calgary man is headed to the Parapan Am games in Santiago, Chile, next month after being named to Canada’s para cycling team.Mike Sametz is seen during the time trials at the 2023 Cycling World Championships in August.
Mike Sametz is a Rio 2016 Paralympian, a Paralympic bronze medallist, and a Toronto Parapan Am silver medallist. In 2019, injury and illness took him out of the sport completely, but after four years he's ready for his comeback, and he's currently training in Ottawa with the national team.Sametz said he crashed during a race in 2019 and was also dealing with symptoms of relative energy deficiency in sport, a newer issue being identified in high performance athletes.
"I just finally said enough was enough and took some time away from the bike to fully get myself — my head — back into it and recover and see where I wanted to go with the sport."