Lorette brothers share Paralympics gold medal

Wheelchair basketball superstar Joey Johnson of Lorette is considered by many to be among the top two or three players in the world in his sport.

Johnson underscored that point in Athens, when he led Canada to the gold medal at the 2004 Paralympic Games. He scored 15 points while leading Canada to a 70-53 victory over Australia in the gold medal final, defending the championship Canada won four years earlier in Sydney.

Despite winning the gold medal in Sydney, Canada came into Athens ranked third behind the U.S. and Great Britain, as Canada lost in the semi-finals at the 2002 World Championships. That was the only loss for the Canadians in the last five years.

Canada dominated in Athens, winning seven straight games, mostly by margins of 20 points or more, including a 90-71 victory over the Netherlands in the semi-finals, when Johnson poured in 19 points.

But for Johnson, 29, who plays professional wheelchair basketball in Germany, winning the gold medal in Athens took on special meaning, as his brother, Bill Johnson, was a member of the Team Canada wheelchair team support staff as the team leader.

Following the completion of the Paralympics, Joey returned to Germany for his second season of professional ball, playing in a pro league at RSV Lahn-Dill, located just north of Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, Joey’s older brother, Bill, 30, returned to Canada with the bulk of the team, after being gone for a month. The Carillon caught up with Bill Johnson at his office in the Sport Manitoba building in Winnipeg, where he works with Coaching Manitoba.

Growing up in Lorette, the Johnson brothers, just a year apart, were inseparable and for them to share this gold medal together was very special, Bill Johnson said.

“Being able to share this with my brother at the pinnacle of our sport was great.”

Joey has a 4.5 rating for wheelchair basketball and is considered the most functional member on the team in regards to his disability. Joey is able to walk, although with a noticeable limp. He suffers from legge perthes. An active, athletic child, the head of his femur disintegrated when he was eight. Ultimately, he will get a hip replacement, but is still considered too young to do so, because of the limited life of replacement hips.

At the age of 10, he was recruited by well-known Winnipeg wheelchair athlete Jake Smellie, who introduced Joey to a variety of wheelchair sports, and he eventually settled on basketball.

Early on, Joey excelled in the sport and he went on to play five years of wheelchair basketball at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. A national team member for nearly a decade, Joey also competed in the Paralympics in Athens in 1996, where Canada wound up fifth.

In Canada, able-bodied people are allowed to compete in wheelchair basketball, including the Canadian championships, but not at the international level. “It was something we could do together.” Younger sister Mandy Johnson also competes in wheelchair basketball in Winnipeg.

Joey’s Team Canada teammate and friend, Patrick Anderson of Ontario, who also plays with Joey in Germany, is widely regarded as the top wheelchair basketball player in the world. Although in a recent interview, Anderson, a double amputee, said he believed Johnson to be the best. At any rate, the two are the stars of Team Canada and are also very close friends.