Performance of the Year: Stefan Daniel

Stefan Daniel’s year included a number of world cup wins and qualifying for the Paralympics in Rio next year. Oh, and he also won the national junior championships, too.

It was an incredible year for the 18-year-old from Calgary, who took the Paratriathlon event in London and Edmonton before winning the world championship by 30 seconds. As impressive as all those results were, Daniel beat all his able-bodied competition in Magog this summer, taking the national junior title in 58:26, four seconds ahead of Charles Paquet.

After trailing the race leaders by almost a minute after the swim (he was born with bilateral radial club hands), Daniel ripped through the bike to join the front pack, then finshed the day off with an impressive 15:49 run, five seconds faster than Paquet and 23 seconds faster than the next-fastest runner in the field, fellow Albertan Cooper Bentley.

In a year full of great performances by the young Paralympian-to-be, we’ll celebrate that national championship win as one of our performances of the year.