‘Lionheart’ Josh Cassidy’s life all about overcoming obstacles – next up is Dubai Marathon course record

The Canadian tells Ahmed Rizvi having cancer and being bound to a wheelchair was the best thing to happen to him.

Canada’s Josh Cassidy has enjoyed success as a Paralympian for Canada. Philippe Desmazes / AFP

Described as a “Lionheart” back home in Canada, Josh Cassidy has proudly got a lion tattooed on his right shoulder. Under the lion, he has got the five Olympic rings tattooed as well, reminding people of his three Paralympic appearances.

Both those tattoos are dear to the 32-year-old Ottawa native, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer in the spine abdomen in the weeks after his birth. Now, an elite wheelchair athlete, Cassidy – the fastest man to complete a wheelchair marathon when he clocked 1 hour, 18 minutes, 25 seconds at the 2012 Boston Marathon – will be making his Dubai Marathon debut this Friday, hoping to set a course record.

What are your expectations from Friday?

I have been to Dubai before for racing on the track, but this is my first time for the marathon. So I am very excited. I only entered about a month ago, so it wasn’t a part of my original plan. At home in Canada, it’s a very cold winter, so I have been indoors training on the stationary trainer, the treadmill. Training’s been going well, but we will see how it goes. I’d like to do well and I’d like to win.

Tell us about those two tattoos on your right shoulder.

I have been to three Olympics Games and I got this one after 2012. And then this lion tattoo, there were some news articles where they called me a ‘Lionheart’, so I got a tattoo as a sort of an accomplishment.

What attracted you to elite wheelchair sport?

Watching the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, we had a Canadian Jeff Adams do very, very well. Watching him win those gold medals, I thought, ‘I want to do this. I want to try this’, and that’s what interested me.

The hopes of your survival from cancer were not very high, but you kicked it off after five years of remission. Did that fight set the tone for the rest of your life?

From being born with cancer and surviving, yes, it kind of set the tone for my life. I was always determined to get what I wanted of life, no matter what the obstacle. I always loved sport as a child and wheelchair racing was a new challenge that I had a lot of fun at. The marathon was the biggest challenge and getting to travel around the world and competing in new cities, and races like this that are offering prize money, it allows us to do what we do, and try and be the best in the world.

Did you face any obstacles because of your disability?

Being in a wheelchair, having cancer, was the best thing that could have happened to me. I don’t wish I could walk because it taught me many things. It taught me to learn how to adapt and to get what I wanted out of life. So at a very early age, I learnt how to overcome obstacles. At first, it was physical obstacles like climbing stairs, but then I started applying that to school, to sports, to everything in life – that if you believe, if you work hard, if you put in the time, you can achieve whatever you want.

And then I applied this mentality to sport because then I realised that sport is like a microcosm of life; it’s voluntarily putting yourself in front of obstacles to be able to push yourself harder, to be better and fail too, because when you fail, you learn and you grow from that. So that’s what really interests me in sport.

You come from a big family – the oldest of 10 siblings. Did that competition with your brothers and sisters growing up help as well?

Yeah, I think that as well. Growing up with so many siblings, we always played sport, so there was always that competitive nature between all of us as well. Four sisters and five younger brothers.

What attracted you towards the marathon?

I find the marathon the most challenging for sure, definitely for training – it’s longer, harder training, but there’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from when you complete a marathon.

Which was your first marathon?

My very first marathon would have been Niagara Falls in Canada, maybe in 2005. I am not sure. It’s been a long time ago. But the 2010 London Marathon was the first one that I won with a really full international field.

You have clocked the fastest marathon time ever in a wheelchair, but the Boston course is officially not eligible for world record. Do you think you can make it official here on Friday?

To be honest, I don’t think I will be able to this Friday. It will be interesting to see the course, see what it’s like. I am looking at this to hopefully push the course record and get a gauge of the course, and then be able to really prepare for this one next year.

You have got the defending champion JohnBoy Smith, who set the course record of 1h:35m:56s last year, and also a couple of other elite wheelchair athletes like Rafa Botello, Patrick Monahan and Rob Smith. A strong line-up?

Those guys are good and those guys have been on the road, whereas I have been indoors training in Canada, with the snow. So maybe they will have a bit of an advantage, but because the course I fast, I think we will probably have a bit of a group for quite a while.

Looking into the future, a Paralympic medal is still missing from your collection. Will that be your target at the 2020 Games?

The Rio Olympics didn’t go as well as I had anticipated, so I am aiming to go to 2020 Tokyo. The one medal that I don’t have is the one from the Paralympic Games, so that’s what my sights are still set on.

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