‘Really excited for it:’ Regina’s Nik Goncin heading to third Paralympics

Nik Goncin will have a full-circle moment in his wheelchair basketball career.

The Regina product played in his first international tournament in Paris in 2009. He and the Canadian men’s senior team have qualified for the 2024 Paralympics in France after a 72-60 win over Italy in a last-chance qualifier.

“I’m still a little bit in disbelief that we were able to pull off that last game in the best way possible,” Goncin said. “I’m looking forward to it. My summer got a lot busier than it would have been. (It’s) just great for our team, great for our program and great for the country — all good, positive things.

“We’ve never had a last-chance qualifier before. The way things had been done before was you earned your qualifier spot at Para-Pan Am Games prior to (the Paralympics). So this was totally different with our backs against the wall.

“We played four games in Spain before we came to France (and) lost all those games. We lost the first three games (in France) so we were 0-7. To be able to pull off that last win was pretty remarkable.”

Canada hasn’t won a medal in the men’s wheelchair basketball event since a first-place finish at the 2012 Games in London.

“This is going to be our best chance in the next decade or so to do well at the Paralympics. I have high hopes and it would be amazing, but we are focused on the process, not so much the outcomes. If we do the right things, I think we can definitely fight for a spot and play for a medal,” Goncin said.

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While this will be his third Paralympics, the co-captain of the Canadian team is grateful for the opportunities wheelchair basketball has provided for him.

“There’s a saying. It goes something like, ‘As one door closes, three others open,’ or something to that regard,” he said. “That is what basketball has done for me. I got an education paid for and I’ve lived in different countries and I’ve gotten to travel the world.

“It’s a job at the end of the day when we go to Spain or France or go to wherever. I spend a lot of time in the gym doing whatever our art is.”

Goncin and his family moved to Canada from Yugoslavia when he was a young child. He said his parents had just $100 in Canadian money when they first came over.

“Looking back at it, mad respect for my parents for what they had to go through and had to persevere through and if I had cancer in Yugoslavia right after the war or during, things could be very different – we might not be having this chat,” Goncin said. “I’m grateful for us making that move and what Canada has been able to deliver.”

He said he played a lot of sports growing up but when he was 15, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and that led to him losing his left leg.

He subsequently was introduced to wheelchair basketball when a clinic was put on at his school.

“(The coach) came up to me at the end of the week and asked if I would be interested in coming to play. I respectfully declined multiple times and he kind of insisted I come and bring a friend and try it out,” Goncin said.

He eventually went out to play the sport, and now he admits at first he wasn’t very good at it.

“I was absolutely terrible and it wasn’t what I thought it would be, (but) I fell in love with it instantly,” Goncin said.

That kicked off a career that saw him play at the under-23 world championship in Paris, play at the University of Illinois and go pro in Germany with the BG Baskets Hamburg before coming back to Canada to play at the club level.

He has also played in two previous Paralympic Games – 2016 in Rio and 2020 in Tokyo.

“My first Paralympic Games were in Rio in Brazil, which was OK-organized but there was some stuff surrounding that. The second one I went to was Japan which was COVID, so none of my friends and family could come watch,” Goncin said. “This is going to be my first rip at one that is regular, so (I’m) really excited for it.

“It feels different this time than it did in the past. I’m a co-captain on the team so there’s an expectation of success whereas when you’re younger, you’re just hoping. It’s a weird thing between happiness and relief when stuff like this happens. I’ve spent way too much time playing basketball for it to be a hobby and so when things don’t come to fruition, it is pretty defeating.

“Making another one – my third one now – I am still in disbelief.”

But the 32-year-old knows he can’t play forever, so he’s enjoying the ride.

“When I get home and looking at what it has been able to provide for me, it’s a privilege,” Goncin said. “Not everybody gets it for whatever reason – whether it’s financial or the country you’re born in or whatever it is. I am just eternally grateful for the journey I have been on and whenever it does come to an end, I think it will be nothing but positive memories.

“I’m just kind of taking it in. It’s wild; my first international tournament was in Paris and my last Paralympics might be as well. We will see what the future has to hold. I’m just grateful.”