Athlete profile: Anne Fergusson

Ahead of the Winter Games in PyeongChang next month, we’re profiling Canadian Olympic & Paralympic Committee athletes who’ve attended Smith School of Business as part of our partnership with COC. This week it’s sitting volleyball player Anne Fergusson.

Kingston, ON – Ask Anne Fergusson to explain how sitting volleyball differs from regular volleyball and she’ll first point out the obvious: players sit rather than stand. Next, because the net is lower, the ball travels a shorter distance between opposing teams, and so the game is faster.

Growing up in Carleton Place, ON, Anne played all types of sports: basketball, soccer, badminton, track. Then in high school her volleyball coach told her about sitting volleyball. Anne, who was born with no left hand, had never heard of the sport. “I YouTubed it and decided it was the coolest thing ever,” she says.

Today, at 22, Anne is on Canada’s national team. She was there in 2015 when the team won bronze at Toronto’s Parapan Am Games and she hopes to compete in the upcoming World Championships in the Netherlands.

Last year she graduated from Queen’s with a degree in mechanical engineering, then got her Graduate Diploma in Business at Smith.

One thing Anne especially liked about the GDB program was its teamwork approach. That’s also her favourite part of volleyball.

“Many of my teammates have faced a lot of adversity in their lives,” she says, noting that several have had limbs amputated. “So, for me, the exceptional people I play with is what’s special.