Billy Bridges is a legendary Canadian athlete. He’s competed in six Paralympic Games winning gold in 2006, bronze in 2014 and 2018 and recently in 2022 winning silver. He’s also a 4-time World Champion and on 2 of those occasions was Championship MVP. He was also the youngest recruit to the Canadian sledge hockey team at 14 years old.

This is all in addition to being an amazing athlete in wheelchair basketball (where he was a member of 2 World Jr. Championship Teams), wheelchair tennis, being a motivational speaker, mentor, ambassador for para-sports and a loving and caring husband and father.

Billy was born in the beautiful province of PEI but spent much of his youth living in Ontario due to his medical needs related to Spina Bifida.

In this episode, Billy provides his approach on how to address ableism from a place of empathy. His advocacy work is an uplifting example of empathy in action.

It is noteworthy that during this episode the Toronto Six Women’s Hockey team is referenced. The Toronto Six was part of the PHF (Premier Hockey Federation), the league which existed before the newly formed PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League).