After a decade-long stint with BC Wheelchair Basketball, Sian Blyth is back with the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program (WASP)—the very charity she founded some 25 years ago. She ran the ship as a volunteer back then, but today, she’s the new executive director.
“What it means to me is to return to a program that I obviously have a huge passion for, and to build on the great work that everybody—from the staff to the partners to all of our funders, supporters, volunteers and athletes—have built, and to help it move into this new, bright future.”
There are plenty of exciting initiatives for Blyth and her team to sink their teeth into, including the Canadian Armed Forces-sponsored Soldier On program, the new adaptive downhill race at Crankworx, and of course the 2025 Invictus Games. WASP communications lead Jennifer Brown looks forward to all of it.
“It’s an amazing juncture for this organization at the moment,” Brown said. “We have a full team in place, a really, really strong team with a huge amount of experience … and this incredibly exciting, wider stage for adaptive sports. Sian is clearly an amazing leader, bringing us all together with so much energy and enthusiasm.”
Maintaining the ability for regular participants to still access WASP’s programs is really important, but “obviously the Invictus Games have a big global lens on it,” added Blyth. “It’s so important that the world can see there is so much out there for individuals with disabilities to access. You never know, but there will be people that watch the Games on TV, or see it just wandering through Whistler, whose lives will be impacted at some stage in the future.
“Even though I’ve been involved in this area of work for 25 years, I still come across, on a fairly regular basis, people who did not know that some of these opportunities are there. [They didn’t know] about adaptive snowshoeing, for example, or didn’t know that we have an adaptive swimming program in the Sea to Sky corridor.”
Ten years at the helm of BC Wheelchair Basketball have taught Blyth many things, above all the power of adaptive sport to level the playing field for individuals with a disability. The vast majority of players she came into contact with are not high-performance athletes, but everyday people who play wheelchair basketball once a week. She’s also seen many young kids discover a new and life-giving recreational outlet.
'Incredible partnerships'
Blyth emigrated to Canada roughly a quarter-century ago, and has a nursing background where she helped patients with spinal cord injuries build their confidence and quality of life through outdoor activity. Naturally, the British expatriate wished to see similar things happen in the Sea to Sky, so she approached Whistler Blackcomb with a business plan that ultimately became WASP.
As former executive director Chelsey Walker, now with the Invictus Games, took the reins at WASP for some 17 years, Blyth moved on to other endeavours. She was at various points the High Performance Director at BC Adaptive Snowsports and a board member with Freestyle Vancouver, Freestyle Canada, the Take a Hike Foundation, the Disabled Skiers Association of British Columbia (DSABC), and Freestyle BC, where she still serves. As her kids grew up, they fell in love with freestyle skiing, and the Blyth family have been Whistler weekend warriors for some 20 years.
Adaptive sports have always been Blyth’s passion, and she credits the Sea to Sky community for helping WASP become what it is today.
“[The organization] has evolved to where it is because of the incredible partnerships that have been built: the incredible partnership with Whistler Blackcomb, with the municipality and with the greater community,” said Blyth. “We are where we are, and we are going where we’re going, because of the great partnerships in this community.”
In 2022-23, 108 WASP volunteers helped facilitate more than 10,000 lessons to 468 athletes. The organization is also in the midst of its annual holiday fundraising effort, which donors can check out at whistleradaptive.com/donate.
