Vancouver’s Pearce Bourassa says sport has been instrumental in helping him deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder.
He will celebrate sport on the world stage next month as he competes in the third annual Invictus Games in Toronto.
“Since being part of Team Canada and Invictus and getting back into sport, I find that it just amplifies the therapy that you’ve been going through all the years,” he said. “The therapy is one thing but to add sport on top of it… before the therapy I found that I was at a minus 10 and through therapy I got to a zero, but now through sport I feel like I’m at a zero going to a plus 10.”
The Invictus Games was started in 2014 by Prince Harry after he saw the U.S.-based Warrior Games for wounded, ill and injured military personnel and veterans. He was inspired to create an international version. The first Invictus Games was held in London in the fall of 2014. It attracted more than 400 competitors from 13 nations. The second games in 2016, which took place in Orlando, Fla., included more than 500 competitors from 14 countries.
This year’s event is expected to be even bigger with more than 550 competitors from 17 nations.
The event aims to help currently serving members and veterans in overcoming physical and/or mental health illness or injury through adaptive sport.
Bourassa is a veteran of both the army and the navy — serving for five years in each.
In 2008, he was deployed to Afghanistan. Five years later, in 2013 he was diagnosed with PTSD based on his tour. Two years later, he was medically released from the navy.
The Medicine Hat native, who moved to Vancouver two years ago after serving in Victoria, has always been into sports.
“Growing up, I played a lot of hockey and I was on some school teams,” he said, adding he did a lot of biking.
When he was released from the navy, he heard about Soldier On, an organization that helps ill and injured members of the military recover through sport. Through Soldier On, he heard about the Invictus Games.
He was waffling on whether or not he should apply, but took the plunge after some coaxing from his wife. He was initially placed on the reserve list but about a week before the first training camp in Victoria in April he got word he was on the team.
Bourassa will be competing in cycling, the 400 and 1500-metre races, and wheelchair tennis.
“I don’t need a wheelchair but they need people on their team,” he said. “So our coach, who is the coach at Wheelchair Tennis Canada, got me involved with getting myself set up with a wheelchair.”
While he’s played other racquet sports, Bourassa said he’s never played tennis before so he’s had to learn the game as well as learn how to use a wheelchair.
“I kinda just jumped in. I took this Invictus thing as a way to just jump in and see where I land,” he said.
In addition to competing in three sports, Bourassa has been chosen as the flag bearer for Canada. He received the flag Saturday at the PNE at the launch of the National Flag Tour.
The tour will make its way across the country visiting military bases, legions and communities that have been a part of Canada’s 150-year history.
The Invictus Games runs Sept. 23 to 30.
