Stacy Duchscherer will look back at his silver medal with great pride – but the experience of competing in the Abu Dhabi World Para-Jit-Jitsu Championship brought to fruition the reality that he has a future in the sport following an emotional journey of self discovery.
The Canadian, 50, has had to face the challenges of being disabled after his left leg was amputated during a work accident when he was just 20 years old. Understandably, it was an incident which left him reeling internally.
“I was pretty devastated at the time,” he recalled. “I was 20 years old and you look at it like your
He did exactly that and looked at life in a positive way. He got married and found a new love for jiu-jitsu after being introduced to the sport by his 15-year-old son Ryan (who will compete in the Abu Dhabi World Youth Cup on Monday) four years ago.
“My first impressions (of jiu-jitsu) was hell no,” he said. “There was no way I could do that. But just watching my son do it, it looked so beautiful. At first I thought everybody would be full of egos but that’s not the way it is. They (coaches) help you do it and want you to do well. They all want to make it work. It’s overwhelming and often brought me to tears because I’ve never experienced anything in my life in what I’ve done during my life so far.”
In his short career so far, he’s tested himself against some of Canada’s best but was yet to compete on the world stage until the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation (UAEJJF) came knocking, inviting Stacy to the Para-Worlds and Ryan to the Abu Dhabi World Youth Cup.
At first, Stacy was contemplating whether to make the long 17-hour flight from North America especially as the competition came 12 months after his wife Tina passed away following a battle with terminal brain cancer.
“I was still in mourning when I was asked whether I’d be interested in coming to Abu Dhabi or not,” said the
father of three. “I wasn’t eating much and I wasn’t training as much as I could. I was falling into much of a depression because of my wife’s death.
“Before she passed away, we raised enough money to send Ryan to California for the Kids Worlds. But she had a seizure and then died 11 days later. We didn’t know what was happening because we didn’t know she had cancer.
“Myself and Ryan went and he won silver in Non-Gi and Gi events. And those medals were for her. She was a huge and big figure in my life. Of course we had our ups and down as what every marriage does but I’m grateful to have the kids (Ryan, Jamie, 17 and Sheniah 23) that I have today.
“The Abu Dhabi World Para-Jiu-Jitsu couldn’t have come at a better time and my daughter (Jamie) said for us to go. We wouldn’t have been able to come here if it wasn’t for her.”
Global Edmonton MVP Stacy Duchscherer competes at world jiu-jitsu championship @JHaskinsGlobal reports #yeg pic.twitter.com/PvpiGRRxkD
— Global Edmonton (@GlobalEdmonton) April 7, 2017
He added: “This is the World Para Jiu-Jitsu Championship and this is the biggest of them all. Abu Dhabi is so beautiful and I didn’t envisage it in my head.
“The experience of competing was such a blast. I thought I would retire from competing and just train after the championship but I’m looking forward to next year. This has pushed me to train harder and there’s no way I’m walking from it. I will continue this ride and take it wherever it takes us.”
