Nikola Goncin

Started: He began the sport at age 16 in Regina, SK, Canada. (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016) Reason: After his amputation his school held a wheelchair basketball demonstration, before a local coach asked him to play regularly. "I was in high school gym class and we had a wheelchair basketball demo and it was shortly after I lost my leg. I was like a little bit reluctant to do it at the beginning and then I kind of brought my brother with me. I fell in love with it right there. It doesn't really matter who you are, you can make a difference on the team. For me, I'm not very tall, however, I can still keep their best defender out of the play because speed is everything. It's sort of like a fast-paced chess game." (ca.news.yahoo.com, 10 Aug 2015) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (wheelchairsportsalberta.com, 27 Sep 2023; paralympic.ca, 24 Oct 2023, 10 Apr 2024; cbc.ca, 04 Apr 2024) Awards: In 2014 he was named Canada Wheelchair Basketball Junior Athlete of the Year. (wheelchairbasketball.ca, 01 Jan 2013) Additional Info: ROLE MODEL He lists his father Zoran as his role model in life. His family are originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and moved to Canada as war refugees when he was age three. "As it turns out the timing of my birth was poorly planned as the country was amidst a war at the time. My father served in the military as it was mandatory conscription at the time and my mum took care of little me. We applied for immigration to multiple countries and Canada was the first to answer the call. We arrived in Canada in 1994, the same year my brother and sister were born. Now, I obviously remember very little about this but as I grow older and realise what things my parents had to endure for my siblings and I to live in the situations we do now, is nothing short of extraordinary. I hope that I'm never in the same situation as my parents were, running away from a war-torn country, but If I have even a quarter of the ambition and passion of my father then I would check that off as a success. I've said many times that my dad is my role model." (sunrisemedical.co.uk, 01 Jan 2014; torontoobserver.ca, 07 Jun 2016; nikgoncin.ca, 06 Sep 2020) OCCUPATION In August 2022 he began working as an orthotic technician at Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, AB, Canada. He says he was inspired to pursue a career in the industry by his own prosthesist. "It took me a long time to find my calling outside of basketball but I am happy to report that I think I have found it. Obviously my passion for the prosthetics and orthotics industry began because of my experience with prosthetics but to me it is deeper than that. It took me a number of years to fully comprehend how much of a positive effect my prosthetist had on me those years ago. He was also a surviving cancer patient and had lost his leg some 25 years before meeting me. To me at the time, this man exemplified success, particularly as a teenager who had just lost his leg. What I would love more than anything is to work in an industry where I will be presented with the opportunity to have that same positive affect on others." (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2022; nikgoncin.ca, 06 Sep 2020) FURTHER EDUCATION After completing a bachelor's degree in kinesiology and exercise science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the United States of America, he went on to study for a master's degree in health sciences at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, ON, Canada. He has also studied for qualifications in orthotic and prosthetic technical fabrication at George Brown College in Toronto, ON, Canada. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Aug 2022)