Bisons head coach helping lead the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team in Paris – University of Manitoba Athletics

Canada’s senior women’s wheelchair basketball national team will open their Paris 2024 Paralympic competition on August 29 in a game against China. Alongside them will be Bisons women’s basketball head coach Michele Sung.

Sung was hired as the national team’s head coach in early 2024 at the urging of several players who knew her from her time as an assistant coach ten years earlier.

“I think that always helps with the decision of going into a new team when you have the support of the athletes,” says Sung. “Because you know somebody wants you there, which is a good starting point.”

Sung says one of the team’s challenges is the actual tournament length, with basketball being one of the sports running the entire two-week duration. For her, the job right now is managing the team’s mentality, ensuring they are prepared for the whole run.

“They had a vision for what they wanted the summer to be about so they can go into Paris energized,” Sung says.

To say the team is experienced is an understatement. The team has secured three Paralympic gold medals (1992, 1996, and 2000) and four world championship titles (1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006). Several veteran athletes who have been with the group for years, like captains Cindy Ouellet and Tara Llanes, anchor the team.

One of Sung’s big focuses with such an experienced team in the lead-up to Paris was ensuring their training camps were hosted in different venues across the country. For Sung, this was an opportunity to grow the game domestically and build the athletes’ experience.

“We want to share the game with as many people as we can,” Sung says. “If people can’t come to Paris, they can come see them play and build some hometown support.”

On her home front, Sung says she’s felt incredibly supported by her Bisons team, both the student-athletes and the administration. Sung has been steadily building her Bisons program over the past eleven seasons and worried that time away might harm her team’s student-athlete experience. However, she says she’s had nothing but excitement and support from the team.

“For them to be super supportive was like such a relief,” says Sung. “They’ll never know it, but both teams have been incredibly supportive of each other, always asking how the other one is doing when I go back and forth.”

Sung says her first Olympic opportunity has been a great opportunity to rediscover coaching, and she’s excited to bring lessons learned back home to the Bisons. The role has allowed her to experiment and be more “daring” with her coaching style.

“It’s a whole new level of thinking, organizing, communicating and interacting,” Sung says. “It’s been a good opportunity in terms of my development as a person and a coach.”

Sung says that while she might’ve been hesitant at first, the support she received from the people around her reminded her of how exciting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is.

“I’m fortunate to have a lot of people who helped push me to do this,” Sung says. “Taking in the excitement of those people has allowed me to grow and enjoy this opportunity.”

She says it’s been exciting to join such a distinguished team and can’t wait to see how they work together during the competition.

Connor Boyd