From Windsor to New Delhi: Chloe Dunbar ’27 Competes for Team Canada — Issue 8

After more than a decade of coaching at King’s-Edgehill School and writing recaps for dozens of competitions, I’ve often started by mentioning how many schools were in attendance. It’s particularly exciting when I can say that we’ve competed against schools from Ontario or Quebec. This, however, is the first time I can write about attending a competition with more than 100 countries represented. That’s what happens when you attend a world championship.

Chloe Dunbar ’27 was named in August to Team Canada’s roster for the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India, held from September 27 to October 5. Prior to the event, Chloe and I joined the national team’s preparation camp in Dubai and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, for 10 days of acclimatization to the extreme heat we would face in India. In the UAE, the temperature never dropped below 34°C, even at night, and humidity hovered between 70 and 80 percent. We trained at 7:00 a.m. or 7:00 p.m. to avoid the peak UV index, which reached 11 on some days. By the time Chloe raced in 40°C heat in New Delhi, the lower humidity made conditions feel manageable.

Having made her international debut with Team Canada in May at a meet in Paris, France, Chloe already knew many of the athletes representing the Maple Leaf. The training camp provided valuable time for both of us to get to know the 24 other Canadian athletes and 22 members of the support staff. I was the only personal coach in attendance. Chloe, the only high school student on the team, stood out among teammates who were mostly university students or seasoned veterans, the oldest being 38. Being part of the national team is being a professional athlete.

When people ask how India was, my one-word answer has been overwhelming. The density of people, the constant honking, the unimaginable levels of pollution and poverty—it’s a sensory overload. And layered on top of all that was a nine-day world championship featuring the best para athletes in the world. This is a lot to handle for anyone, let alone a 16-year-old from rural Nova Scotia. It takes an outstanding person to rise above it all and perform at her best.

Many of Chloe’s competitors were significantly older—some more than twice her age—but she’s also part of a new wave of young T47 para athletes breaking records and pushing the sport forward. It’s clear that many world records will be rewritten in the years to come. Chloe competed in the 100m and 200m sprints. In the 100m, held on the second day of competition, she ran well in the preliminaries but didn’t advance to the next round. Several days later, and after hours of thought, discussion, and reflection, she applied what she had learned from that race to the 200m preliminaries, and this time, she advanced to the semifinals.

True to her nature, Chloe spent even more time between races carefully analyzing her performance and identifying opportunities for improvement. In the 200m semifinal, she delivered what I consider her best race of the season—not because it was her fastest, but because of the challenges she overcame through focused analysis and committed execution of her race plan. I often say we can only control our own race, not the race of others, so qualifying for the final will have to wait until the next World Championships in Uzbekistan in 2027.

Thank you to our Head of School, Mr. Joe Seagram, for his unwavering support in allowing both of us the opportunity to attend these world championships. It was a significant expenditure of time and effort for many people. Thank you as well to Mr. Derek Bouwman and Ms. Toven MacLean for helping to facilitate teaching coverage while I was away—especially recently retired KES math teacher Ms. Mary Ann Dufour—and to my math students who listened attentively while I taught them online for a few classes and tutorials. Thank you to each of Chloe’s teachers for helping her stay on track and making her return as seamless as possible. She might be the only one sprinting in her lane, but it took a whole team to get her there.