ROB ARMSTRONG
Sport: Para Ice Hockey
Position: Defence
Age: 29
Hometown: Erin, ON
Residence: Toronto
Local Club: Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario
Disability: Mobility impairment (childhood spinal virus)
Third Paralympics
Instagram: @robarmstrong61
ANTON JACOBS-WEBB
Sport: Para Ice Hockey
Position: Forward
Age: 25
Hometown: Gatineau
Residence: Montreal
Local Club: Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario
Disability: Born with shorter left leg (wears prosthetic)
Second Paralympics
Instagram: @antonj.w
TYRONE HENRY
Sport: Para Ice Hockey
Position: Defence
Age: 32
Hometown: Stittsville
Residence: Ottawa
Local Club: Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario
Disability: Paralysis from waist down (automobile collision)
Third Paralympics
Instagram: @tyronehenry5
VIEW CANADA’S PARA ICE HOCKEY COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Keiran Gorsky
Rob Armstrong remembers his first time on a para hockey sled, or what used to pass for one. The seat was hard and flat and comically close to the ice. A car seatbelt kept him fastened in.
The contraption proved impossible to steer, blades bolted to opposite ends of the makeshift bucket. The old sled moved only in straight lines, leaving a young Armstrong to barge into anyone caught in his path.
It was great!
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“That feeling of being able to get on the ice again was just so fun,” Armstrong recalled from Team Canada’s pre-Paralympics training camp in Oakville before heading to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games. “I didn’t care what I was sitting in. But it was just the feeling… and being like, ‘Okay, this is a really unique and pretty cool sport.’”
Armstrong soon traded in that battered relic for a functioning sled and climbed the ladder all the way to the national team.
Ever since he joined the Team Canada ranks along with fellow Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario alumni Tyrone Henry and Anton Jacobs-Webb, though, Canada have been stuck on a frustratingly linear trajectory, much like his old antique.
The Canadians have solidified themselves as podium favourites in international competition, but that medal has almost always been silver in recent years, with USA in the gold medal position.
The Americans have won four consecutive Paralympic titles, including a 5-0 beatdown of Team Canada in the Beijing 2022 championship game.
But there are hints and hopes that the Canadians are closing the gap and could have a shot at pulling off an upset.
There have been significant changes in personnel on and off the ice for Team Canada, with seven of 17 different players from Canada’s 2022 Paralympic roster, and a change of attitude instilled by Boris Rybalka, who was appointed head coach heading into this season.
The Ottawa trio agreed this team feels markedly different. It might help that circumstances are completely incomparable to four years ago. Even before they dove headfirst into the infamous closed loop in Beijing, the entire team was subject to a month-long period of isolation in individual rooms. Everyone had a little cabin fever by the time they got to China, where regular testing and strict mask protocols continued on.
“It’s going to feel like a Games this time,” smiled Henry, Team Canada’s assistant captain. “This year, you can feel the hype building. The feeling is a lot different. Everybody’s driving for that same goal. We want to make sure that this Games is something special for everybody.”
Even medal games in Beijing were attended by scarcely more than a thousand mainland residents. This time around, players are keen to have friends and family members following them to Milano.
“Now that I’m 29, my friends can actually afford to come and watch,” laughed Armstrong, who made his Paralympic debut at PyeongChang 2018 and graduated from Carleton University with a history/law degree in 2024.
Henry, who recently collected his second consecutive Ottawa Sports Awards male athlete of the year honour, said he always feels lots of support from his hometown.
“Being able to be to represent this city, this country, on the international stage, and having the support of people in Ottawa, it means a lot to me,” underlined the South Carleton High School grad from Stittsville. “This is where I got started, in para ice hockey, this is where my foundations are for my whole career, so I appreciate everything the city and the community has given me.”
Beyond some ill-timed snow squalls slowing their bus ride between the arena and their hotel, the lead-up to Milano Cortina has been much kinder to them. Team Canada have played some of their best hockey under coach Rybalka, who was appointed in August after the Canadians were thrashed 6-1 by the United States in the final of the 2025 World Para Ice Hockey Championships.
That blowout in Buffalo came as vengeance for the U.S. after Canada had earned perhaps its biggest boost of hope for Milano.
At the 2024 World Championships in Calgary, Gatineau’s Jacobs-Webb scored the game-winning goal in Canada’s 2-1 win over USA in the gold medal game, snapping a 23-game losing streak against their arch rivals.
Read More: 3 local players capture Canada’s first para hockey world gold in 7 years, first on home ice
Rybalka, previously a Team Canada assistant since 2023 and a long-time coach and general manager with the Camrose Kodiaks in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, has continued to build on the team’s confidence. Within a 48-hour period of taking over, Rybalka phoned every player on the team. He championed something of a refreshing “win-now” mentality in contrast to the seemingly unending emphasis on development of years past.
The message might not have resonated so well had the team not already proved they could compete. The un-retirement of Greg Westlake provided institutional memory – and perhaps a good luck charm – from the last Canadian Paralympic triumph back in 2006, which also came on Italian ice, in Torino. And the emergence of fresh, young talent has done a great deal to strengthen the existing core.
“I think we have a lot of new players who are key, but I also think the players who were young in Beijing stepped up to key roles,” highlighted Jacobs-Webb, who was 21 when he made his Paralympic debut in Beijing. “Our top guys are still our top guys but I think our secondary leadership has learned a lot.”
Following the thumping in Buffalo, the Canadians have enjoyed improved performances against USA. They went to overtime before losing 2-1 in the preliminary round and then lost 3-0 win an empty net goal in October’s International Para Hockey Cup in Czechia, and then fell in two hard-fought contests 3-2 and 2-0 (with an empty-netter again) in December at Hockey Canada’s Para Hockey Cup.
“Those two games were probably some of the best we’ve played against them in a long time,” Jacobs-Webb indicated. “I think it’s a testament to our coaching, to what we’re learning, to the team, the belief and the work we’re putting in, every time we play them.”
The international field has shown signs of strengthening, although Canada has still maintained the upper hand against all opponents except for the U.S. in recent years. It’s expected to be Canada vs USA in the final event of all Paralympic competition on Sunday, March 15.
“We’re feeling very confident,” signalled Henry, the two-time Paralympic silver medallist. “We have a very strong group of guys, led by some great staff and great coaches, so I think this year is very positive and very optimistic.”
CANADA PARA ICE HOCKEY COMPETITION SCHEDULE
Ottawa at the Paralympics Newsletter
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