- Source: Michelle Stilwell
Michelle Stilwell (nee Bauknecht; born July 4, 1974) is a Canadian athlete and politician. She represented Canada at four Summer Paralympic Games (2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016), as well as the 2015 Parapan American Games. She competed in wheelchair basketball before becoming a wheelchair racer, and is the only female Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two separate summer sport events.
As a politician, she represented the electoral district of Parksville-Qualicum in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2013 to 2020 as part of the British Columbia Liberal Party caucus, and served as Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation of British Columbia from 2015 to 2017.
Early life and education
Michelle Bauknecht was born on July 4, 1974, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is the youngest of four children, and worked at her parents' hotel in her youth. Weeks before graduating from River East Collegiate, she broke her neck from a fall at the age of 17 and became an incomplete quadriplegic, with limited hand and wrist functions. After the accident, she competed in wheelchair basketball, through which she met her husband Mark Stilwell at the 1996 National Championships in Montreal. Stilwell eventually moved to Calgary, and completed her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology at the University of Calgary in 1999.
Athletic career
Stilwell stayed in Calgary from 1997 until 2000 to train for the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team, winning gold at the 1998 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. She then competed as a reserve for Team Canada at the 2000 Paralympic Games, where her team won the gold medal. Afterwards, Stilwell, her husband Mark, and their newborn son moved to Parksville, British Columbia in 2001.
However, Stilwell was forced to forgo wheelchair basketball after undergoing surgery for a herniated brain stem. Although unable to compete at the national level, Stilwell continued to play basketball locally where she was spotted by coach Peter Lawless, who convinced her to try for wheelchair racing. At the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships, she won gold in the women's T52 200m event, and silver in the women's T52 100m event.
Stilwell qualified for the 2008 Paralympic Games where she won two gold medals in the women's T52 200m and 100m events. At the 2011 World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, she won the gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m events, as well as the silver medal in the 800m event; she set the World Championship records in the 100m and 200m races.
At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Stilwell defended her Paralympic gold medal in the women's 200m event in 33.80 seconds, shattering her Games record by over two seconds. Four days later, Stilwell captured a silver medal in the 100m event after mishap caused her to fall behind Marieke Vervoort. The following year, she competed in the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships and won gold at the 100m, 200m and 800m events, setting a new world record in the women's T52 800m race. She took the gold medal in the women's T52 100m event at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto.
In 2016, her last Paralympic Games, Stilwell earned gold medals at the women's 100m and 400m events, setting a Paralympics record during the latter race with a time of one minute and 5.42 seconds. The following year, Stilwell announced her retirement from competitive sports. She was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
She was named to the board of directors of the Canadian Paralympic Committee in 2022.
Political career
With incumbent BC Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly for Parksville-Qualicum Ron Cantelon declining to seek re-election, Stilwell was acclaimed as the party's candidate for the riding in the 2013 provincial election. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia at the May election, and was named government caucus chair and Parliamentary Secretary for Healthy Living in June 2013, before adding Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health for Seniors to her responsibilities in June 2014. Following Don McRae's resignation from cabinet, Stilwell was sworn in as Minister for Social Development and Social Innovation in February 2015.
Stilwell was re-elected in 2017 and retained her post in Premier Christy Clark's cabinet, until the Liberal minority government's defeat in a non-confidence motion. After the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) formed government in July 2017, Stilwell served on the Official Opposition bench as critic for Tourism, Arts and Culture for the remainder of the 41st Parliament.
After losing her seat in the 2020 election to BC NDP candidate Adam Walker, Stilwell joined CVM Medical as director of COVID-19 rapid testing in 2021.
Electoral record
References
External links
Michelle Stilwell at the International Paralympic Committee Michelle Stilwell at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)
Michelle Stilwell at the Canadian Paralympic Committee
Michelle Stilwell - Cœur Handisport
Official Liberal Party Website
Official Wheelchair Racing Website