- Homepage
- Athletes
- Athlete Profiles
- 2009
- David Eng
David Eng
David Eng: Everything to poromote the sport
He holds two paralympic medals, he has played with the pros in Paris and studied in the United
States on a full scholarship. Yet, wheelchair basketball player David Eng, who is not short of
offers to go back to the professional ranks, has only one goal in 2009: be Canadian champion!
The Quebec team never took the national championship. We have taken silver, but never gold.
This year, the tournament is here, in Longueuil. We can’t miss this opportunity.
Although talent is not lacking on the Quebec team, the 32-year old Montrealer does his own
recruiting. There is no real research in wheelchair basketball. I have 20 years experience
in the sport and a diploma in kinesiology. I can help.
He has met an athlete full of potential and has taken him under his wing.
He has only been in a wheelchair for a short time and I’ve taken him in tow. We train
together. It is important for me to share my passion and I am interested in helping development.
He caught the wheelchair basketball bug from his uncle, Gérald Brûlé, former member of the
national team. Before developing a handicap himself (during his growth period in his teenage
years, one leg grew more than the other), he was already having fun in a wheelchair. My
uncle had many wheelchairs at his place, so we would play together. I would go and see him
play and I really loved it. When I was 12, he asked me if I would like to try and I never
stopped since.
At the national level, one does not have to be disabled to play wheelchair basketball.
It was considered a wheelchair sport, not a sport exclusively reserved for people with
disabilities. I could be on the national team but could not take part in international
competitions
, he explains.
It is when he went to play for the Arlington University team in Texas where, thanks to his
scholarship, he studied kinesiology and started a master’s degree in physiology of exercise,
that he tried to invoke his faulty growth as a sufficient disability to make the Canadian
line-up on the international scene. If it worked in the United States, why not in Canada?
he wondered.
That was in 2004, just in time for the Athens Paralympic Games where he helped Canada grab its
second gold medal in a row. Also wearing the Canadian colours in 2008, in Beijing, Eng was
hoping to be a part of history as member of the first team to win three consecutive paralympic
titles, but he and his teammates had to be content with silver following their defeat to
Australia. It certainly was disappointing, but looking back, we still took silver!
In the semi-final, the Canadians had just beaten the U.S., their bête noire.
We had won in overtime and we were physically burned out for the final. Against the
Australians, we beat ourselves.
Eng, who devotes himself full-time to his sport, is looking forward to the Défi sportif,
which should provide the Quebec team with a general rehearsal for the Canadian championship.
Especially so, since for the 26th edition of the Défi, wheelchair basketball will
have a choice venue. The final will be presented at Centre Pierre-Charbonneau as the closing
moments of the event. It will be important because it will allow us to showcase our sport.
We have to show that in Quebec, the level of play is high enough and that we offer competitive
quality basketball. And also that we are able to develop great athletes.
