Tracey Ferguson

{{Infobox sportsperson

|headercolor = red

|textcolor = white

|name = Tracey Ferguson

|image = No 12 - Tracey Ferguson.jpg

|imagesize =

|caption = Tracey Ferguson

|fullname =

|nicknames =

|nationality = {{CAN}}

|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1974|9|7}}

|birth_place = Holland Landing, Ontario

|death_date =

|death_place =

|height = {{convert|5|ft|0|in}}

|residence =

|club = Edmonton Inferno/Northern Lights

|disability_class = 3.0

|collegeteam = University of Illinois

|medaltemplates=

{{MedalGold|1994 Stoke Mandeville|Women's wheelchair basketball}}

}}

Tracey Ferguson is a Canadian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player. She has won several gold medals including at three different Paralympic Games.

Early life

Tracey Ferguson was born on September 7, 1974, in Holland Landing, Ontario. She was the last of six children and her initial ambition was to be a swimmer. She was left paralysed after an operation on her spine at the age of nine, but four years later she was being introduced to wheelchair basketball. Her mother was unsure about this sport as she thought her five foot tall daughter was too small to compete.{{cite news|title=Canadian women look to regain dominance in wheelchair basketball|url=https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2014/06/21/canadian_women_look_to_regain_dominance_in_wheelchair_basketball.html|accessdate=January 14, 2018|work=The Star|date=June 21, 2014|last=Gillespie|first=Kellie}}

Career

In 1991, Ferguson got into a third place at Stoke Mandeville Games which were hosted in Buckinghamshire, England and in 1992 got into the first place at the Paralympic Games in Barcelona. From 1994 she got into a first place not once, but four times in four years. First, she got a first place at the World championships at both Stoke Mandeville in 1994 supporting the captain Linda Kutrowski and that year's star Chantal Benoit.{{cite book|last1=Thiboutot|first1=Armand|title=The 50th Anniversary of Wheelchair Basketball|year=1996 |isbn=3830954417|page=86|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3830954417}} Her second World Championship was at Sydney in 1998. In 1998 and 2000 she got first place again at the 1996 Paralympic Games and the 2000 as well. In the same years she was honoured to be chosen as a member of a world team. In 2004, Tracey got a third place at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and a year later she was awarded a silver medal at the Qualifications of Americas Tournament in Colorado Springs. Five years later she got a bronze medal at the World Championships in Manchester and a year later she won a silver medal at the 2011 Parapan American Games. She also won a bronze medal in 2013 at the Osaka Cup which was held at Osaka.{{cite web|url=http://www.wheelchairbasketball.ca/players/tracey-ferguson/?t=|title=Tracey Ferguson|publisher=Team Canada|accessdate=January 14, 2018}} She was part of the team that won a gold medal at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto in July 2014,{{cite news|url=http://www.wheelchairbasketball.ca/news_press/canada-wins-gold-on-home-soil-at-the-2014-womens-world-wheelchair-basketball-championship/?t=|title=Canada Wins Gold on Home Soil at the 2014 Women's World Championship|publisher=Wheelchair Basketball Canada|accessdate=January 14, 2018}} and silver at the 2015 Parapan American Games in August 2015.{{cite web |url=http://results.toronto2015.org/PRS/resPT2015/pdf/PT2015/WB/PT2015_WB_C92C_WBW400000.pdf|title=Wheelchair Basketball - Medallists |publisher=Toronto 2015|accessdate=January 14, 2018}}

Awards and honours

In 2012, Ferguson was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.{{cite web|title=Previous Hall of Fame Inductees|url=https://www.cfpdp.com/previous-hall-of-fame-inductees/|website=Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons|accessdate=January 14, 2018}} In 2013, she was awarded with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal which was given to her by Minister of State Bal Gosal.{{cite web|url=http://olympic.ca/advisories/olympic-and-paralympic-athletes-to-receive-queen-elizabeth-ii-diamond-jubilee-medal|title=Olympic and Paralympic athletes to receive Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal|publisher=Olympic.ca|date=December 19, 2012|accessdate=July 15, 2013|archivedate=May 22, 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522020244/http://olympic.ca/advisories/olympic-and-paralympic-athletes-to-receive-queen-elizabeth-ii-diamond-jubilee-medal|url-status=dead}} She was also awarded with YMCA's Young Women of Distinction Award and the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.wheelchairbasketball.ca/players/tracey-ferguson/?t=|title=Tracey Ferguson|publisher=Canadian Paralympic Committee|accessdate=January 14, 2018}}