(Image Credit: Canadian Paralympic Committee)

By Chad Klassen

GREG STEWART

Paralympic pressure mounting for Stewart, leaning on 2019 silver medals for inspiration

Aug 9, 2021 | 5:28 PM

KAMLOOPS — Greg Stewart has been on the international stage and has had great success, but never as big a stage as the Paralympics.

As the Games get closer, it’s a stage that’s feeling increasingly bigger for the Kamloops native as the internal pressure mounts.

“I’ve actually never felt this way ever up until now for the Paralympic Games,” Stewart told CFJC Today over Zoom from Nanaimo, where he’s been training for the last month to escape the Interior smoke. “My whole entire throwing career, I would just go there and throw and have fun, and now all of a sudden I’m feeling this pressure that I’ve never felt before.”

Stewart says while friends and family note the amazing accomplishment just being named to the Canadian Paralympic team — which it absolutely is — he’s not necessarily satisfied with that, putting tremendous pressure on himself to do well.

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The precedent has been set for him to have a great Games with Stewart winning two silver medals in 2019 — first at the Para Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru and then at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.

“Right now, I’m just looking back at those specific Games. Para Pan Ams, I blew my back out, but I still trusted in the fact that I was still able to compete. Same thing at worlds — just trusting in the fact that [Stewart’s coach] Dylan [Armstrong] has done this many, many times. He understands and so just trust what he’s going to do. That’s what it’s ultimately going to come down to in the end is when I get that shot in my hand, and whether it’s beautiful outside in Japan or pouring down rain, just trust in the fact that all I have to do is throw it.”

WATCH: Full interview with Kamloops Paralympian Greg Stewart

The 35 year old, like any competitor, wants to bring home a medal from Tokyo.

“Do I want to win a medal of some sort? Absolutely I do,” he said. “How cool would it be to come back home with hardware? How cool would it be to have hardware, and down the road when I have my own kids be able to give them and show them that? That would be really cool.”

However, he’s also not defining himself based on what he brings home — a medal or nothing.

“It really popped into my head yesterday (Aug. 8) when I was like, ‘How would I define greatness?’ I don’t define greatness as having a medal in your hand. I don’t define greatness as all of these material things. I think greatness is somebody who shows and has ownership for themselves. I think ownership is greatness,” he said.

As Stewart works through mounting pressure and the mental stresses that comes with a big-time event, he’s appealing to Kamloops residents to help. He’s set up his own Paralympic email account — gregintokyo21@gmail.com — and wants people to send encouraging messages, stories or jokes that he’ll read between throws.

“I’m just going to flip through [the messages], and what it’s allowing me to do is be present in what’s going on and to minimize the amount of ‘Oh, that was a bad throw’ or ‘Oh man, that guy threw better than me’ or anything like that because I’m a human being and I definitely go that route,” he said.

The F46 shot put event happens in the evening of Aug. 31 Kamloops time and Stewart is hoping to join his coach Armstrong, an Olympic bronze medallist from Beijing 2008, in bringing home a medal.