What It’s Like to Grow Up as a Professional Athlete: Marissa Papaconstantinou’s Story

Elizabeth Montavon

Welcome to today's episode of Athlete Actually. I'm your host, Elizabeth Montavon, and today I'm joined by Marissa Papaconstantinou, a Paralympic medalist and one of Canada's top para athletes.

A three-time Paralympian representing Canada in para-athletics, Marissa won bronze in the T64 100 meters at the Tokyo Paralympic Games and has continued to build on that momentum with multiple world championship medals, including a silver in the 200 meters in 2025. Born without her right foot, she discovered para-athletics at 11 years old after being fitted with her first running blade and quickly emerged as one of the fastest athletes in the world in her classification.

Beyond the track, Marissa has also become an important voice in the Paralympic movement, recently joining CBC's broadcast team as a special contributor for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games. Known for her competitiveness, longevity, and perspective as both an athlete and a storyteller, she's continuing to shape the future of para sport all over the world.

Marissa, thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

I'm good, yeah. How are you?

Elizabeth Montavon

I'm great. I'm so excited to get to know you better as an athlete through this process. This is honestly my dream. So what have you been up to lately? What's on your calendar?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

Yeah, it's been honestly a very interesting year for me because I have kind of a down year for competition. There's the Commonwealth Games, but they don't even actually have my classification for my event, the 100 and the 200 meters. So I actually get to prioritize some other things in my life, which has been really nice.

Just actually in March, I was part of the CBC broadcast for the Milano-Cortina Paralympic Games. So honestly, it's just been really cool to, again, dive into endeavors that I don't normally have time for in a high competition year, whether it's leading into a World Championships or Paralympic Games. So yeah, it's just been really fun to experience different parts of my life that are also important to me and things I want to pursue when I'm done being an athlete. It's been interesting and I'm enjoying navigating all of it.

Elizabeth Montavon

You know, that's so incredible that you took the leap into the side of media, especially at the Paralympic level. I think athletes make the best storytellers around sport. And so when I saw that you were a guest broadcaster for Milano-Cortina, what a perfect fit that is. In the vein of athlete stories, I would love to ask you, Marissa: what is your sports story that no one has ever asked you about?

Navigating Athlete Identity and Growth

Marissa Papaconstantinou

Yeah, I was trying to really think about what I haven't been asked because I've been in sport for such a long time and I've been in the media side of things for a really long time. I'm still young, I'm only 26, but I started this all when I was 13 years old and I've been asked a million questions over the years.

I think something that I don't think I've really had the chance to talk about much is the impact of starting a sport at such a young age and really how it impacts your identity over time. Also navigating growing up—from being a teenager to an adult—and going through all those phases of your life while also going through phases of being an athlete as well. It's been a lot to process and a lot to navigate over the last decade of being in high-performance sport. But it's also been such a privilege at the same time. It's very weird for me because I now look at young people on my team who are 16 or 17 and starting where I was when I was in the early phases of my career. It's weird to think that now I'm someone who's towards the later end of being at this level. I don't know if “imposter syndrome” is the right word for it, but it's like I still feel like I'm 20. Or I still feel like I'm 16. I think a lot of people in my circle and on my team still look at me as that little kid who just started out. I was talking to one of my massage therapists last week about it and I was like, "I'm 27 this year." And he's like, "Marissa, that's actually sickening because I remember when you were 15 years old and just starting out on this team." It's crazy how time goes. I've also had to navigate so much throughout being a young athlete until now.

Elizabeth Montavon

You know, I guess we could call them “child athletes.” I too was a child athlete. I learned my sport at three and started competing at eight. It's been such a huge part of my identity for so long. I think something that's kept me going is knowing that I can reinvent my athlete identity as many times as I need to. As you grow as a woman and as a human being, you reinvent yourself. You rebrand, if you will. Did you ever feel like there was a distinct moment where you said, "Okay, I've got this new, evolved, more grown-up version of my athlete identity?" Or did it happen gradually?

Injury and Resilience in Sports

Marissa Papaconstantinou

That's a really good question. I think over time I was forced into circumstances that made me adapt and grow up. A lot of that happened through injury specifically. In 2017, I tore my hamstring at the London World Championships in the final stretch of my 200-meter final. I was 17 years old. That year I had really started to develop and drop my times. I was setting personal bests every race and I felt like I was inching my way toward the podium. I started to put so much emphasis on that. That's what everything became. That's what became important to me.

So navigating that challenge was an eye-opener. It made me rethink what's important about being an athlete and about doing high-performance sport. When you're at your most vulnerable and everyone is watching you at your most vulnerable, it can be a really tough experience to navigate. At the end of the day, I still got up and finished the race, but it obviously wasn't the outcome I was looking for. It made me grow up and think more maturely in the sense that it's not always about the outcome. It is about the process and the journey to get there. I've had to relearn that lesson so many times throughout my career. There wasn't just one instance where I learned it and moved on. There were multiple times where I had to learn it again.

I got injured again a couple years later and found myself putting so much emphasis on podium finishes because they felt within reach. They were realistic goals. But life had other plans. Things outside my control happened. The biggest thing I learned was how to navigate uncontrollable circumstances. At the time I thought I was super mature, and in some ways I was. But you look back at yourself at that age and you're like, "Oh my God, I knew nothing about the world and I knew nothing about myself."

Then even with Paris 2024, I felt great going into the Games. Olympic and Paralympic years are pressure cookers. Everything feels different. The stakes are higher. Making the team is harder. You're on edge all season. I felt like I was handling it well. I arrived in Paris in great shape and ready to perform. Then I got COVID and had to navigate the entire competition while sick. Sometimes you can give it your all, but your all is not going to be enough. That was okay. There were so many other things I had accomplished that season. I had to take away some of the heaviness from not medaling at the Paralympic Games. That year, I was on billboards all over Toronto with my running blade on. To me, that's such a huge accomplishment — not just for myself but for Paralympic sport. People all over Toronto and Canada were seeing someone in a high-performance sport environment with a running blade. I set personal bests that season. There were so many things I accomplished that weren't just about the medal at the end of it all.

At the end of the day, only three people can stand on top of the podium. I've had the privilege to do that five times throughout my career. Those moments become even more special because you realize how difficult they are to achieve.

Support Systems for Young Athletes

Elizabeth Montavon

No, I love that. That is the whole point of this show. Your perspective is absolutely brilliant. To navigate injury at such a young age on the professional stage — that's not only physical trauma, but mental and emotional trauma as well. And you're doing it with thousands or hundreds of thousands of people watching. What would you tell the parents of a young athlete who's injured? What would you tell the coaches? How can those adults best support them?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

That's a really good question because a lot of the reason I was able to navigate those difficulties was because of my family: my parents, my sister, my partner, my coaches, and the people who have always been in my corner. Honestly, I would tell them to give grace, but also tough love at the same time. It's a funny combination and there's definitely a balance.

My family was really good at giving me grace and understanding that injuries were hard on me mentally, emotionally, and on my mental health. Having said that, there were definitely some pity parties thrown during rehab and recovery, and they weren't having any of it. It was a good balance of support while also giving me that realistic wake-up call that this is the reality. This is what athletes at your level deal with. We're here to support you, but you have to have a positive attitude about it. You have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Having a negative attitude isn't going to help your recovery. It's not going to help your sleep. It's not going to help anything that will assist in making you better.

Elizabeth Montavon

I think you articulated that so well. They need grace because they're going to say things and behave in ways they don't really mean because they're going through it. But they also need guidance and tough love to help get them back on the path.

Now, you said something really interesting earlier, that sometimes you still feel like your 16-year-old self as an athlete. I feel the same way. There are goals I set as a teenager that I'm still chasing today. Is there anything that very young Marissa still has on the goal list?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

Yeah, I definitely have big hopes for LA 2028. That will likely be my last Paralympic Games. I try not to set too many plans in stone because you never know where life will take you, but that would be Games number four for me. My biggest hope is to perform in LA and leave the track knowing that I did everything I possibly could. That I prepared the best I could and ran the fastest I possibly could at that point in time. Obviously there are podium goals and big dreams and aspirations, but the more mature athlete standing in front of you today understands that you can't control everything that happens. You can't control what other people do either. All you can do is focus on yourself. The best way to make those goals realistic is to recover the best you can, train as hard and as smart as you can, and bring everything you have when it matters most. But I would be lying if I didn't say I wanted to be on the top spot of that podium in LA.

The Pressure of Individual Sports

Elizabeth Montavon

Gold all day for our girl Marissa. Now, when we talk about your sport, it's an individual sport. You really can't play defense. It's all offense. You can't control anyone else. What is that like for you? I find it's a type of mental and emotional endurance that doesn't get talked about enough.

Marissa Papaconstantinou

Yeah, it totally is. If you allow it to be, it can be incredibly lonely. Track is an individual sport and when it's time to compete, you're out there by yourself. But I treat it as a team sport as much as I possibly can. I show up to training every day with teammates who cheer me on and that I get to train alongside. That's what makes the environment positive and fun. One of my training partners, Sheriauna Haase, has been awesome. She competed in Paris 2024 and she's young, hungry, and coming through the ranks. She's someone who keeps me motivated, and we motivate each other. We have fun together. I think it's about treating it like a team sport as much as possible so you don't feel the burnout and heaviness that comes with standing on the start line alone.

Elizabeth Montavon

I love that. When you spoke about Paris 2024, you mentioned being on billboards all over Canada. That means your running blade was on billboards all over Canada too. That visibility in para sport is so important, especially for youth. Can you tell me a little bit about where you stand on advocacy in para sport?

Media Representation of Para Athletes

Marissa Papaconstantinou

I feel like my role beyond being an athlete is also being someone who wants to work in media because media has a lot of power to change people's minds and attitudes. Being part of the CBC broadcast for Milano-Cortina was an incredible opportunity to do that.

We had so much positive feedback from people online and from the general public. The numbers don't lie either when you're talking about millions of Canadians tuning in every day to watch Paralympic sport. That's where I feel the movement is really going in the right direction. The sport itself has developed so much since I started. The competitiveness, the professionalism, the mentality, all of it has grown. But I look at it from a top-down perspective. If you're putting this content on people's TV screens and they're consuming it, the sport is going to continue growing.

Hopefully there's a little Marissa out there who watched me race in Paris or watched the Winter Paralympic Games and felt inspired to try a para sport. That's what it's about at the end of the day. Growing it for the next generation and leaving it better than you found it. It's changed so much since I started, and when I leave sport, I can confidently say I'll leave it better than I found it.

Elizabeth Montavon

That's beautiful. I've asked other Paralympians this question and I'd love your perspective as both an athlete and a broadcaster. When media talks about para athletes, so much of the story tends to focus on disability. While that's important context, it often misses the rest of the athlete's story. What advice would you give to media members who want to tell a fuller story?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

I always look at disability or injury as context, but it's not the full story. You don't want to shy away from those stories because many of them are incredible. Someone who experienced a traumatic injury and then became a Paralympic champion; that journey is difficult for most people to even comprehend. Those stories deserve space. But there also has to be balance.

Sometimes there's too much emphasis on the sob story or what people call inspiration porn. We talked about that a lot during the Paralympic Games on CBC. At the end of the day, athletes who make it to the Paralympic Games also want to be recognized for their athletic performances. The disability can be acknowledged, but it can't be the entire story because these athletes deserve to be shown as high-performance athletes — not just people who overcame something and made it to the Games.

Elizabeth Montavon

Would you say that if someone wants to learn how to speak more intelligently about para athlete performance, they can simply ask?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

Absolutely. The thing with disability is that everyone has a different lived experience. I'm congenital:I was born missing my foot. I don't know life any differently. I wore a prosthetic as soon as I started walking. Someone with an acquired disability may feel very differently about how they want to share their story. It's always best practice to ask what someone is comfortable with and go from there. But there's also a fail-safe option: talk about athletic performance. Ask questions you would ask an able-bodied athlete. Why does it have to be so different? A lot of these athletes just want to be recognized for the fact that they do something really cool and they're really good at their sport.

Broadcasting Experience and Insights

Elizabeth Montavon

That's excellent media coaching. What surprised you most about working in broadcasting at Milano-Cortina?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

I prepared a lot, especially as a summer athlete talking about winter sports. But I wasn't prepared for how much work goes into such small on-air segments. You have two minutes to get your thoughts out. It has to be well articulated. It has to hook the viewer. It has to include all your points and then tie everything up neatly or transition into something else. There are so many moving parts.

I studied sports media in university, but this was on a much bigger scale. The studio, the producer in your ear, plans changing on a dime, it was a huge eye-opener. But I loved it. It was fun and high-energy. It gave me a lot of the same feelings I get from competing. That was really reassuring because broadcasting is something I want to pursue when I'm done with sport. To feel that same excitement competition gives me was comforting. It made me realize that life after sport can still be fun and exciting.

Elizabeth Montavon

I love that you've found another passion that still lives in the world of sport. Tell me a little bit about what's next for you.

Looking Ahead: Upcoming Competitions

Marissa Papaconstantinou

This year I have some competitions coming up, mostly local ones. National championships are in June and then I plan on doing a small European tour at the beginning of July. After that, I'll wrap up my season a little earlier than normal because World Championships are next June in Uzbekistan. We also have the Pan American Games in Lima next year, and I've actually never been to a Pan Am Games before because the timing never worked out. So it'll be really cool to finally experience that and likely finish my season there.

Then I'll take a little break and start gearing up for LA 2028. It's kind of crazy that it's only two years away. Time goes so fast.

The Last Lap

Elizabeth Montavon

It's going to be a fast two years. Before we wrap up, let's head into our final segment: The Last Lap. Marissa, if you were the answer to a sports trivia question, what would you like that question to be?

Marissa Papaconstantinou

I think something that really started off my career was this: Which Canadian athlete was featured in the Ontario Science Centre?

For context, when I was 13 years old, there was a large photo of me with my running blade in the Human Bionics exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. It was all about technology and the way the human body works. So yeah, that would probably be my trivia question.

Elizabeth Montavon

That is so cool. You've been famous for a long time.

Marissa Papaconstantinou

I wouldn't say famous.

Elizabeth Montavon

Oh my gosh, Marissa, I have so enjoyed this. Thank you so much for being here.

Marissa Papaconstantinou

Thank you for having me. This was a lot of fun.