Colette Bourgonje School

Welcome to the Colette Bourgonje School, formerly known as the Colette Bourgonje_newsbio.jpg School. Colette Bourgonje is a 10-time Paralympic athlete who broke barriers and is currently a retired teacher with Saskatoon Public Schools. Bourgonje is Metis and earned 10 Paralympic Medals in her competitive career, including 6 in Para-Nordic ski, with a bronze and silver at the Vancouver Paralympics in 2010, her first medal as a Canadian Paralympic athlete. She was a wheelchair racer at three Summer Paralympics, winning two bronze medals in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics and the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. Bourgonje was 18 when she was injured in a car accident and was about to complete Grade 12. The university admitted her to the College of Physical Education the following fall, the first student with a physical disability to do so. She was also the first college student with a disability, and she was the first woman in a wheelchair to graduate from a Canadian physical education program. The University of South gave her a Bachelor of Education. Bourgonje was an elementary school teacher and physical education instructor at Saskatoon Public Schools from 1989 to 2010. She also stayed active by competing and training. She worked at both Silverwood Heights and Fairhaven as a teacher before returning to full-time training.