YORKTON - When Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team takes to the Paralympic floor in Paris Saskatchewan fans will be watching for how one of our own performs.
Julie Kozun of Melfort said it is an event she is thrilled to be taking part in.
“It was pretty exciting (for the team to qualify). I’ve been working toward it for like a year, she told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview.
It is Kozun’s second games as she made her Paralympic Games debut at Tokyo 2020, where Canada finished fourth, losing in the bronze medal game to Brazil.
The two teams will meet again in pool play in Paris, where Kozun said she feels the results will be opposite this time.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, as its name implies sitting volleyball is a form of volleyball where as opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must sit on the floor to play. It is a sport for athletes with a disability organized by World ParaVolley.
“Sitting volleyball was invented in the Netherlands by the Dutch Sport Committee in 1956 as a rehabilitation sport for injured soldiers. In 1958, the first international sitting volleyball contest was held between Germany and Dutch club teams,” details Wikipedia.
“It was created as a combination of volleyball and sitzball, a German sport with no net and seated players. Sitting volleyball first appeared in the Toronto 1976 Paralympic games as a demonstration sport for athletes with impaired mobility, and both standing and sitting volleyball became officially included as medal sports in the Paralympic games at Arnhem in 1980. Women’s sitting volleyball was added for the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.”
In this case was part of the squad which helped Canada qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games as it earned one of the available spots at a last chance tournament in 2023.
“It was really big not having to go to a last chance tournament,” Kozun said of the team’s qualification, adding they thought they could do it when they did.
“We kind of knew we had a really good chance,” she said, adding the highest rated team was already in, so they just needed a top two finish in the event.
“Kozun lost her left leg below the knee in a lawn mower accident at her friend’s farm. While she was in the hospital her friend’s cousin, Erica Gavel; Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team member, paid her a visit. She came to tell Kozun about the sport of sitting volleyball. In 2015, post-recovery, Kozun became a member of the team. At the same time, once she had her prosthetic sports leg created, Kozun also continued to play standing volleyball for her high school team,” noted www.paralympic.ca
So now ahead of Paris what is the focus for Kozun and the team.
“It’s working on things we’ve already integrated,” said Kozun, adding there always aspects of the team game that can be improved on.
“. . . It’s just staying connected with the team when you’re working on your own.”
Connectivity is something Kozun said is critical in sitting volleyball where movement around the court is more challenging. Players need to be aware of each other positionally and stay connected in a very ‘team’ approach, and that requires on-court communication.
“Connectivity is so important in volleyball in general,” she said. “. . . We’ve been working lots on connections the last year.”
It helps that Kozun played standing volleyball before her accident, but she added it is a very different game, but it is where she is happy now.
“I always loved volleyball. If I was going to do an adaptive sport this was the one it was going to be,” she said, adding it still takes a year, or so “to figure out the movement” of sitting volleyball, before really getting into the details of play.
Now Kozun looks forward to Paris with an eye to soaking in more of the atmosphere with a true opening ceremony and life in the athletes’ village – things severely curtailed in 2020 because of COVID.
“This time will be more exciting – more real,” she predicted.
And, after a fourth pace finish in 2020, Kozun said the team is fully focused on a podium finish in Paris.
“We were fourth in Tokyo so we were right there,” she said.
Team Canada is in a pool with Brazil, Rwanda, and starts things off on Aug. 29 against Slovenia.
