From the World Stage to the Next Generation: Tara Llanes’ Full-Circle Journey
On September 9, Tara Llanes will take to the court in Ottawa as Canada prepares to compete at the 2026 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships.
For Llanes, competing on the world stage is familiar territory. Since joining the Canadian national team in 2018, she has represented Canada at World Championships, the Paralympic Games, Parapan Am Games and the Commonwealth Games. But as she prepares for another World Championship, her journey to this point is just as significant as what happens on the court. Today, Tara is not only an elite athlete, she is also a coach with BC Wheelchair Basketball Society, helping introduce the next generation to the sport that became such an important part of her own life. It is, in her words, “a real full circle moment.”
A life built around sport
Llanes grew up in Southern California and started playing stand-up basketball in Grade 3, continuing through her junior year of high school. After high school, sport remained central to her life, first through BMX and eventually professional downhill mountain biking. For 15 years, she competed at the highest level she could reach, racing on the World Cup circuit and at World Championships. In her early 20’s, she was being paid to race, a career that allowed her to build a life around training and competition.
Then, in 2007, everything changed. Tara was competing at the Jeep King of the Mountain race in Vail, Colorado, when a crash, resulting in a spinal cord injury, left her a paraplegic. She spent time recovering and completed rehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Denver. The transition away from the life she knew was not an easy one.
Finding her way back to sport
Llanes shared that it took about six years to get herself back to a place where she could move forward mentally. Friends and family encouraged her to try handcycling. She trained and raced, eventually attending a U.S. Paralympic camp in San Diego and winning Nationals. But handcycling never felt like a replacement for mountain biking. She ultimately wasn’t ready to try and fill the void that mountain biking had left, and after the competition, she decided she was done with it.
Without the sport that had defined so much of her life, Tara found herself struggling with a question many athletes can relate to, but under circumstances she never expected to face.
“Who am I? What’s Next?”
Around this time, Llanes reconnected with an old friend from mountain biking, Elladee, and their friendship grew into something more. Eventually, their relationship brought her to Canada. Leaving behind the close network of friends and family who had supported her after her injury was an incredibly difficult transition for Tara. She describes the experience as “rolling away from this really strong group of people that were propping me up through the most difficult season I had faced.”
Moving to Canada meant starting over in many ways. But it also opened the door to a new relationship with sport.
From tennis to basketball
After settling in North Vancouver, Llanes discovered wheelchair tennis. Elladee had noticed the North Shore Tennis Club and asked whether they offered wheelchair tennis. They did, and Llanes began training.She quickly committed herself to the sport, lifting three times a week and spending five days a week on court.
Wheelchair tennis gave Tara a way to compete again, but it was also her introduction to a community that would eventually lead her back to basketball. Through tennis, she met wheelchair basketball players and began hearing the same suggestion: she should try basketball.
She had already spent years playing basketball before her injury, so the sport offered something familiar while also giving her a completely different experience as a wheelchair athlete. She started playing with BC Wheelchair Basketball Society in 2016. At first, she was not particularly focused on competing at the highest level. But that quickly changed.
The more she played, the more she became interested in what was possible. She began looking at Paralympic basketball and comparing her own abilities with the athletes she saw competing internationally. In 2017, she travelled to Calgary for her first Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League game and began asking coaches what she would need to do to reach the national team.
When she learned that a carding camp was only a few months away, Llanes created a training schedule outlining the days and hours she could spend on court and convincing the coaches who could help her prepare. At the camp, she was nervous, but remembers the late Maude Jacques, a former member of Canada's national team, gave her the confidence boost she needed,
“Dude you’re gonna make the team.”
Tara went on to make Canada's World Championship team in 2018, just two years after first joining the BCWBS league.
The moments that stay with you
Since then, Llanes has competed at some of the biggest events in international wheelchair basketball. She helped Canada win at the2022 Commonwealth Games and was part of the team that won silver at the 2023 Parapan American Games. She has also competed at multiple World Championships and Paralympic Games.
But among the many moments in her career, Paris 2024 stands out. Her experience at the Tokyo Paralympic Games had been difficult. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the usually electric atmosphere of a Paralympic venue was replaced by empty stands.
Paris was everything Tokyo had not been. Around 13,000 spectators filled the arena, and the crowd was loud throughout the games. At times, the noise was so intense that players could barely hear their coaches during timeouts. For Llanes, experiencing that atmosphere was something she had always wanted from the Paralympic experience.
It was also a reminder that the meaning of a sporting career is not always found in the final result.
More than the medal
Tara is still competitive and continues to look for the next challenge. But with more experience, her perspective on success has changed.She recognizes that every athlete wants to win the biggest prize. But only one team gets the gold medal, and years from now, the medal itself may not be the part of the experience that matters most.
For Tara, the journey — the learning, growth, struggles, losses and victories shared with teammates — has become increasingly important. She knows that perspective is something younger athletes may not always be ready to hear. But with age and experience, she has come to appreciate everything that happens along the way.
That perspective is also shaping what comes next.
Giving back to the sport that gave her so much
Llanes now works as a Program Coach with BC Wheelchair Basketball Society, helping young athletes develop their skills and find their place in the sport. She is quick to say how much the role means to her:
“I freaking love it.”
There is something particularly meaningful about seeing people like Marni and Makiko, who once supported her, now working alongside her as she helps the next generation. She gets to watch young athletes develop, gain confidence and discover what they can do.
And while she is there to give back, Tara says the athletes give something back to her, too. She sees young players growing and learning, surrounded by supportive families and coaches. Her role is to be there for them, prepared and committed, just as coaches were there for her.
For young athletes, she believes that consistency matters. Having a coach who shows up, supports them and creates a sense of safety can make a meaningful difference in their experience.
It is a responsibility she does not take lightly. The same sport community that helped her navigate some of the most difficult years of her life is now a community she gets to help build for someone else.
What comes next
As Tara prepares to compete at the 2026 World Championships in Ottawa, she is also beginning to think about what her future in the sport will look like beyond her playing career. Navigating a torn ligament in her wrist, she knows that it is only a matter of time before she will need to undergo reconstructive surgery and take a step back from playing basketball as that heals.
But a break from competition does not mean stepping away from wheelchair basketball all together. Her goal is to continue transitioning from athlete and coach into a staff role with the national program leading into LA 2028.
For now, though, there is another World Championship ahead.
And while Tara Llanes will be focused on the court in Ottawa, her story extends far beyond the games themselves – from a childhood spent playing basketball, to a professional mountain biking career, to a life-changing injury, to finding her way back to competition and ultimately discovering a new purpose in helping others find their own place in sport.
Her advice to her younger self is simple:
“Be patient, good things are coming.”
For someone who has spent much of her life chasing the next challenge, Tara has learned that sometimes the most meaningful part of the journey is taking a moment to recognize just how far you have already come.
