How a life-altering illness led a teen to wheelchair basketball stardom

Ibrahim Odza may only be 13-years-old, but he has left quite the mark on the wheelchair basketball scene.

You can find him most days shooting hoops at Variety Village. His passion for basketball started a few years ago.

Before that, his choice of sport was soccer. The pivot from soccer to basketball happened at the beginning of the pandemic when Ibrahim was visiting family in Macedonia.

A year before that he was diagnosed with a cavernoma on his spine, a benign tumour.

“We decided to take a trip to Europe for six months and then our trip got extended for over a year because we were stranded,” says Lindita Odza, Ibrahim’s mother. “Our flights were booked for March 13 to come back and see a follow up appointment, but COVID happened so we were stranded in Macedonia for a couple of extra months.”

In September of 2020, while there, Ibrahim started having back pain and lost the ability to walk.

An MRI revealed the cavernoma ruptured and Ibrahim underwent surgery in Macedonia.

The outcome of the surgery was life saving but, he was told he could no longer walk. In June 2021, Ibrahim was able to return to Toronto where he spent six months at Holland Bloorview, a rehabilitation centre for kids.

Later that year, he was introduced to Variety Village, a sports facility that offers a variety of programs including wheelchair basketball.

“I was always an athlete before surgery, so I still wanted to be an athlete, “ says Ibrahim. “I came out for a Wednesday practice one day and I loved it, so I keep on coming out.”

He now plays for the Variety Village Rolling Rebels and is the youngest player on the Ontario U23 team.

He recently participated in the Canada Games in Prince Edward Island, where he was one of the team’s top scorers. In addition, he was just invited to the Men’s U23 National Team Canada Camp this summer and has been accepted into the Birchmount Exceptional Athlete Program this fall.

“We are so proud of him, he reached so much in just over a year,” says Lindita.

“My dream was to become a professional soccer player for mostly my entire life and then that didn’t happen, so it switched and now I switch my dream and it helped me because I would say now I love this sport better than I love soccer,” adds Ibrahim.