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Jennifer Krempien named Canada’s flag bearer for the 2007 Parapanamerican Games

03 August 2007
OTTAWA (August 3) –Three-time Paralympic gold medalist Jennifer Krempien has been named Canada’s flag bearer for the 2007 Parapanamerican Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) announced today. The Games will take place from August 12-19, 2007.
 
“It is an honour and a privilege for myself and the women’s team to represent my country and lead the Canadian delegation at the Parapanamerican Games,” said Krempien, a 15-year veteran of the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team. “To be selected from among so many talented and dedicated athletes makes this a very special honour, and one I am looking forward to.”
 
She joined Canada’s national wheelchair basketball team in 1992. With the team, she has won three Paralympic gold medals: in 1992 in Barcelona, in 1996 in Atlanta and in 2000 in Sydney. She was also on Canada’s bronze-medal winning team at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Summer Games.
 
“The team is looking forward to and excited about having a good tournament in Rio,” said Krempien.
 
She was nominated partly because of the high praise and wide respect she has earned from athletes throughout Canada and worldwide, the wheelchair basketball community, her team-mates, coaches and trainers.
 
“Given both her incredible Paralympic and World Championship performances and the leadership skills she has demonstrated throughout her career, Jennifer Krempien is the ideal athlete to carry Canada’s flag at the Opening Ceremony of the 2007 Parapanamerican Games,” said Chef de Mission Rob Needham. “She is perfectly suited to be the leader of a strong Canadian team competing in Rio de Janeiro.”
 
Krempien has been named twice to the World All-Star Wheelchair Basketball team – at the 2002 and 1998 World Championships. She also has four World Championship gold medals to her name.
 
She volunteers as vice-president of the Inferno Wheelchair Basketball Society, acts as a motivational speaker and participates in sport demonstrations and community awareness initiatives.
 
The media is invited to come out and see Krempien play in Toronto as she prepares for the Rio 2007 Parapanamerican Games. She and her team-mates are participating in the Spitfire Challenge, running August 3-6 at the Etobicoke Olympium, 590 Rathburn Road in Toronto, Ontario.
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