Ottawa — Eleven athletes from across the country will represent Canada at the World Wheelchair Rugby Americas Championship, taking place in São Paulo, Brazil, from July 11 to 15.

The event serves as a qualification opportunity for the 2026 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships, which will also be hosted in São Paulo in August of next year. As the host nation, Brazil earns an automatic berth, while the two remaining qualification spots will go to the top-performing teams at this tournament.

Team Canada – 2025 Americas Championship

Name	Classification	Residence
Austin MacLellan	3.5	Fredericton, NB
Matt Debly	3.0	Windsor, ON
Fabien Lavoie	3.0	Québec City, QC
Rio Kanda Kovac	2.5	Toronto, ON
Cody Caldwell	2.0	Peterborough, ON
Tony Letourneau	2.0	Montréal, QC
Travis Murao	2.0	Toronto, ON
Yan Racicot	1.5	Montréal, QC
Pat Simard	1.5	Québec City, QC
Byron Green	0.5	Victoria, BC
Eric Rodrigues	0.5	Toronto, ON

 

“Team Canada is looking forward to building on our development and further our international experience at the zonal qualifier in Brazil” said head coach Trevor Hirschfield. 

“This tournament will provide strong competition as well as mean something – teams are playing to qualify for world championships, results matter. We have a great team with lots of potential, mixed with veteran leadership. It will be exciting to see how the team grows throughout this tournament” he said.

The roster consists of a mixture of fresh faces and veterans, including six-time Paralympian Travis Murao (Toronto, ON) and two-time Paralympian Eric Rodrigues (Mississauga, ON), who will serve as team captains. Austin McLellan (Fredericton, N.B.), who received international classification at the 2025 Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge in Australia earlier this summer, will make his second appearance for Canada.

Canada is set to compete against teams from Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru.

The team will travel to São Paulo on July 7 for a pre-tournament training camp. Canada opens its tournament schedule on July 11 against Chile.

Stay connected with Wheelchair Rugby Canada for updates, live coverage details, and results as Team Canada takes the court in Brazil.