Yukon native Jessica Frotten has been named to the 2022 Commonwealth Games Para Athletics team.

The Games are scheduled for Birmingham, England July 28 to Aug. 8. Frotten has represented Canada at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia, the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha and at the World Para Athletics Championship in 2017 in London as well as the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in August 2021.

Athletes were invited by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) based on being ranked in the top seven in the WPA World Rankings between December 31, 2020 to April 25, 2022 (maximum three per country, among Commonwealth nations).

The Star reached Frotten last week and asked her how she felt about being named to the team.

“It’s awesome. It’s a pretty cool team because it’s an integrated event so para and able-bodied are all on the same team and compete together. So, that being said, that means there’s less events.

“Our team’s a bit smaller, but I think we’re gonna have some great results.” Frotten thinks the combined event with para and able-bodied athletes is “super-cool”.

“I think there’s all kinds of debate on whether the big events – Olympics and Paralympics – should be like that, but I don’t think they could do all the events that they need to do, so to have some of these smaller teams integrated like this is just awesome.”

Due to the ranking qualifications, the Para Athletics team isn’t large.

There are two females and four males competing for Canada on the para-side.

“They haven’t named the able-bodied side yet, but the para side is very small,” said Frotten.

Her results last season made it a fait accompli that she would be on the Commonwealth team.

“Last week we got the official invite but I’ve kind of been watching the rankings for a while so I had results from last season that – the cutoff was 25 of April so it was all last season’s results, so my 1500 times got me on there,” related Frotten.

Frotten will only be competing in the 1500m T53 race at the Games.

“Because of the whole integrated team, for wheelchair, there’s just the 1500 and the marathon. I don’t have a marathon time but I do have a 1500 time,” explained Frotten.

Frotten also only competed in the 1500 at the last Commonwealth Games due to unfortunate circumstances.

“I did the last Commonwealth Games – same thing. It was just the 1500 and the marathon. I was registered and qualified for both of them but had a terrible, terrible crash in the 1500, so I had to pull out of the marathon,” recalled Frotten.

It took her at least a month to recover.

“Oh, yeah, it was brutal. So this is a bit of a do-over,” said Frotten.

She described what happened in the crash at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

“To steer the racers – the steering is called a compensator and you just have to hit it over and it turns your front wheel slightly to carry you around the corners so you’re always pushing on the back wheels and then you hit it back and you’re back on the straight – it was a bell lap and I was coming around the outside. The girl on the inside forgot to hit her steering and just drove right into me. It was brutal.

“Packed house – there was like a collective ‘oooohhhh’ sound. I still have nightmares about it.”

The injuries were pretty bad.

“Yeah, I really hurt my shoulder and just the way I folded over the side of my racer, the whole side of me was bruised.”

Frotten is looking to erase that bad memory at this year’s Games.

“I’m really looking forward to it.

Tokyo was amazing, of course, but it was so different with no fans and with all the restrictions and I feel like these games may be a little closer to normal, so that’s an exciting thing to look forward to.”

Her considerable experience since the last Commonwealth Games should give Frotten an edge.

“I’ve grown so much in my distance races. I’m really looking forward to getting out there and seeing what I can do.”

There will be some preparation for Frotten leading up to the Games.

“There’s a few races in B.C. and our Nationals are actually in Langley (B.C.), right before Commonwealth, so that’ll be a big one too,” said Frotten.

The 2022 Canadian Nationals take place June 22-26 in Langley.

“This season’s a little weird because our Worlds got cancelled, so Nationals would have determined the World’s team. (The) able-bodied side still has worlds, so that’s kind of trials for them.

But it will determine different funding things for people also.”