The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports 31 | Thursday, December 5, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Sledge hockey giving athletes reason to smile Players fulfilled by sport -- and they're good at it, too by Kerry Gillespie Torstar News Service TORONTO -- Greg Westlake grew up playing "standup hockey." That's what Canada's Paralympic sledge hockey players call the good old game. "I was as big as the other kids, I had the hand-eye co-ordination, I was a good athlete and a good hockey player but you hit that realization that you're not going to be the first double leg amputee in the NHL, " said the Oakville native. "Once you come to that realization it's like, what else? Do I take school more seriously or do I find other hobbies?" That's when Westlake discovered he didn't have to give up the game he loved at all. Since taking up sledge hockey, he's been to two Paralympics, experiencing both the high of a gold medal in the 2006 Turin Games and the heartbreak of fourth place at Vancouver 2010. Westlake hopes to lead the team he now captains back to gold for the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, March 7-16. The Paralympics don't get anywhere near the attention the Olympics get, but that's just one more challenge for these athletes to overcome. And they're very good at overcoming challenges. These players have survived congenital disorders, childhood cancer, traumatic accidents and even a landmine in Afghanistan. Then, they had to become elite athletes and skilled players to make the national team. Canadian sledge hockey captain Greg Westlake (left) flashes a grin after helping Canada defeat Russia 5-3 at the 2013 World Sledge Hockey Challenge Monday in Toronto. The 27-year-old led the tournament in scoring after Canada's first two games, both wins, with a goal and four assists. | photo by Richard Lautens -- Toronto Star Westlake had both lower legs amputated when he was just a few months old. His teammate Ben Delaney lost a leg to bone cancer when he was 12 years old and became so adept at sledge that he has a shot of making the Sochi Paralympic team even though he's just 17. Then there's Brad Bowden, who's been on the national sledge team since 1999 and trains in Oakville at Beyond The Next Level. Bowden already has two gold medals, one in sledge from the 2006 Turin Winter Games and one in wheelchair basketball from the 2004 Athens Summer Games. All Paralympic events, from skiing to curling, help break down long-standing stereotypes about disability and elite sport, but full-contact sledge hockey smashes them. "You might see a guy day to day in a wheelchair or missing a leg and people feel pity, people feel charity for those guys and then you come watch a sledge hockey game and you see the hits," said Westlake, after Monday's game against Russia at the World Sledge Hockey Challenge, where he had two roughing penalties. "It's the biggest draw in the Paralympics," said Kevin Rempel, who started playing after suffering a spinal injury in a freestyle motocross event in 2006. "We want to show the world that given whatever injury or disability you've got, we can play just like real hockey . . . We're Canadians." Sledge hockey players balance on a single blade, similar to what's on a hockey skate, and use two sticks to propel themselves across the ice and shoot the puck. Once the game starts, the rough bodychecks into the boards make it look and sound just like the standup game Canadians are more familiar with. The intensity of the sport is what attracted Dominic Larocque. He was halfway through his first tour in Afghanistan when the light armoured vehicle he was travelling in hit a landmine. The corporal woke up to discover his left leg had been amputated above the knee and he feared his life was all but over. "When I joined the team I had a chance to talk to players in wheelchairs with full lives, wives, kids and I realized I just lost a leg, " he said. "My life is not done." Canada is undefeated so far in the 2013 World Sledge Hockey Challenge, the last tournament before the Paralympics. Canada beat Korea 5-2 on Sunday and Russia 5-3 on Monday at the Mastercard Centre, with Westlake producing a tournamenthigh five points in those two games. Play continues all week with the medal games played on Saturday. Driven to exceed your expectations. Ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with the Auto Insurance Claims Experience" by J.D. Power. To get your quote visit an RBC Insurance Store, call 1-877 ROYAL 4-3 or go online at rbcinsurance.com/exceed ® At Prince Michael Dr. off Dundas St. E 905-257-8200 At the Olde Oakville Marketplace 905-815-8121 At Appleby Line near Dundas St 905-332-2551 I HOME I AUTO I LIFE I HEALTH I TR AVEL I BUSINESS I RETIREMENT I TM ® / TM Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence. RBC Insurance ranks highest in the proprietary J.D. Power 2013 Canadian Auto Claims Study SM. Study based on 2,458 total responses, ranking 8 insurance providers. Excludes those with claims only for glass/windshield, theft/stolen, roadside assistance or roadside assistance claims. Proprietary results based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed April-June 2013. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com. Home and Auto Insurance is underwritten by RBC General Insurance Company.