By James Crook

landing paralymic logoJuly 30 - The Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) today announced the volunteer Mission Staff that will assist Chef de Mission Ozzie Sawicki in leading Team Canada at Sochi 2014.

Former Paralympic swimmer Chelsey Gotell, who won three gold, two silver and seven bronze medals over the course of three Games, will serve as athletes service officer once again after fulfilling the role at London 2012.

Former British Paralympic Association (BPA) operations manager Anna Johnson, meanwhile, will take up one of the three team services officer roles.

The other two team services officer roles will be fulfilled by Kristina Molloy, who serves as Parapan planning and integration director for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, and Marie-Hélène Cayer, who is currently the senior communications officer for Radio-Canada Ottawa-Gatineau and has worked at one Olympic, two Paralympic and one Parapan American Games in various roles.

8280514312-time Paralympic medallist Chelsey Gotell (centre) will serve as athletes service officer at Sochi 2014, as she did at London 2012

Team physician for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Russell O'Connor, has been appointed as the team medical officer, whilst Jeff Palamar takes up the role of ombudsman having served in the role for Team Canada at the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Games.

The four media attachés will be Hockey Canada media relations coordinator Keegan Goodrich, Alpine Canada web content and social media manager Kelsey Verboom, Team Ontario head of communications John Sims and Chris Dornan of High Performance Public Relations.

"These Mission Staff members are experts in their field who can be counted on to deliver world-class services for Canada's athletes and coaches in Sochi," Sawicki said of his appointments.

"The combined experience and talent of this group is outstanding, as is their commitment to Canadian Paralympic sport."

Canada is set to send around 50 athletes to Sochi next February with the aim of finishing among the top three nations on the medal table, which they achieved at the last Winter Games on home snow in Vancouver, finishing third behind Russia and Germany with a total of 19 medals, ten of which were gold. 

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