HIGGINS Colin

Type of Impairment
Impaired muscle power (paralympic.ca, 01 Jan 2017)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (paralympic.ca, 01 Jan 2017)

Impairment Details
He suffered an injury aged 22 which severed his peroneal nerve causing drop foot, a difficulty or inability to lift the front part of your foot, often causing it to drag when walking. (paralympic.ca, 01 Jan 2017; studentaffairs.missouri.edu, 01 Aug 2019)

General
MOTIVATION
Having always played sport growing up he struggled to come to terms with life after the injury which caused his impairment. Getting into wheelchair basketball though helped him feel like himself again. "I played a lot of sport, some of it very competitively, growing up. [Ice] hockey and baseball predominantly. But when that [injury] happened, I don't want to say I lost a sense of my identity but I was just kind of floating around a little bit in life. And as soon as I got involved in wheelchair basketball I felt like I got my mojo back and it's given me purpose." (cbc.ca, 01 Jul 2019)

GIVING BACK
He is studying for a degree in sports management at the University of Missouri and says his aim after basketball is to work within Para sports. "In my mind I'd really like to work for Parasport New Brunswick or the Canadian Paralympic Committee in some sort of coaching or managerial role, whether it be within wheelchair basketball or recruitment or just in that kind of world. I want to give back to people that I know need it. There's just so little exposure for Para sport at the grassroots level within Canada. I know I'm relatively new to the sport still as I've only been playing for about six years. But it's done a lot for me so far and I'm hopeful it's going to give me a lot more, and I just hope to be able to give some of that back eventually when I'm done." (wheelchairbasketball.ca, 06 Jul 2020)