Horsham wheelchair basketballer Jannik Blair is prepared for Tokyo Paralympic selections

By his own admissions, Jannik has had a tumultuous year.

The Paralympic silver medallist and Horsham export has just returned from Spain, where he has been plying his trade for the past nine months with his club side Bilbao.

He has experienced the highs and lows of competitive sport during some of the world's toughest COVID-19 lockdowns over the past year.

Alongside Aussie teammate Bill Latham, Blair has three days of quarantine left before they head to Canberra for the final selection camp for the Australian men's wheelchair basketball team (the Rollers), ahead of the Tokyo Paralympics.

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"(I've)got the light at the end of the tunnel in sight. It's a lot better than I thought it would be," Blair said of his quarantine.

"They gave us a two-bedroom apartment; we're at the Pullman Hotel in Adelaide, which is pretty awesome.

"I've got a balcony which we can spend some time on just to get some fresh air and a bit of a change of scenery and then we've each got our own bedroom and a loungeroom in the middle."

The Rollers have an impressive record at international competitions.

Since 2000, the team has finished in the top three at every significant event, except the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Unsurprisingly Blair said the Rollers were aiming to bounce back from their 2016 heartbreak with a medal.

"We dropped the ball in 2016," he said.

"I think anything other than a medal would be certainly a disappointment, and I would say that would be below our expectations.

"When you're competing at elite sport you don't go there to come second, you go there to win."

Whether or not the Olympics and Paralympics would go-ahead has been clouded by uncertainty ever since it was first postponed in 2020.

With COVID-19, you can't be sure of anything, but Blair is relieved the Games are finally set to take place.

"It's something the world needs I think, having a month of sport across two events, the Olympics and Paralympics," he said.

"It's a bit of normality and a good sign of optimism for the world as a whole that things are getting back to normal a little bit.

"Things are looking positive, I think across the world the situation is gradually improving, certainly compared to what I was living with in Spain the last nine months."

What Blair experienced in Spain was reflective of a country feeling the full toll of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The 29-year-old's season was highly successful in terms of silverware, with his side Bilbao taking out the Spanish League title for the first time in the club's history.

It was, however, far from being all rainbows and butterflies.

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Blair left Victoria for Spain in September and was welcomed by the country's second state of emergency.

"I basically lived under a curfew the entire time from 10pm to 6am which I lived under for about seven or eight months which sucked," he said.

"They closed the hospitality industry for a couple of months, and we had mobility restrictions in all of Spain so that you couldn't leave your state generally and then sometimes, if things got really bad, they wouldn't let you go your municipality.

Blair continued to play and train for basketball but, as a foreign player, was impacted by being away from friends and family.

"Not having any social outlet or any outlet really meant that if things were going well for basketball it was good but when things were going bad there was no way to distract yourself," he said.

"I guess those long dark months of Winter were certainly a lot harder than they usually would be."

Despite the off-court experience, Blair's time in Spain was invaluable ahead of Tokyo.

"The standard of the league was really strong this year and ultimately with the goal being the Paralympics in Tokyo, I think it was the best place to be from a preparation standpoint," he said.

"I think it does obviously make you mentally stronger so the positive takeaway is that it's a grind, but you come out of it the other end either broken or much stronger I think."

Back under the sunny skies of Adelaide, and Blair is counting down the days until he can see his Roller teammates again.

The side hasn't played together since November 2019 and hasn't been able to prepare as they usually would for a Paralympics.

If selected, Blair, a 12-year veteran of the national program, is looking forward to holding more of a leadership role, as his side aims to return to the podium in Tokyo.

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