COLLINDA JOSEPH
Sport: Wheelchair Curling
Event: Mixed Team
Position: Lead
Age: 60
Hometown: Stittsville
Residence: Stittsville
Local Club: RA Centre
Disability: Paralysis (train derailment)
Second Paralympics
Instagram: @cshejos
By Martin Cleary
The Paralympic Winter Games will have a whole new look the second time around for wheelchair curler Collinda Joseph.
But she’s hoping one thing will remain the same – a return trip to the medal podium, after sharing the mixed team bronze medal with her Canadian teammates at the 2022 Beijing Paralympics.
When the Stittsville mother of two daughters made her Paralympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games, it was a frightening time with the COVID-19 pandemic all around. That injected a nervous and quiet vibe into the environment of the high-performance para athletes.
When Joseph went to the Beijing National Aquatic Centre, which became known as the Ice Cube instead of the Water Cube, for Canada’s curling matches, it was eerily silent as spectators weren’t permitted inside the venue, which had been converted to a four-sheet facility.
However, at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games – which started earlier this week with para alpine ski training and mixed team curling matches but won’t officially open until Friday – Joseph expects quite the opposite, with loud cheering and noise makers from national team supporters, family and friends to compliment and inspire the electric vibe on the ice during nine round-robin matches, followed (hopefully) by playoffs and medal matches from Saturday through March 14.
The Canadian team is expected to have about 40 supporters wearing national team colours and waving the flag. Joseph will have a contingent of nine in her corner, including her husband and two daughters.
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In the Athletes’ Village for the Beijing 2022 Paralympics, a high level of persistent chatter replaced the quietness of the Ice Cube for the athletes. When athletes sat down for meals, there were plexiglass partitions between each one and they had to speak louder than normal to carry on a conversation.
The Athletes’ Village in Cortina will be busy, but the decibel readings will be more bearable as athletes share their stories, make new friends and absorb the greatness of participating in the highest point of their athletic careers.
At Beijing 2022, Joseph played in only one match for Canada as she was named the alternate, which allowed her to serve a role as a secondary coach.
But for the 2026 Games, Joseph has been designated as the starting lead on the experienced team with skip Mark Ideson of London, ON, Ina Forrest of Spallumcheen, B.C., and Jon Thurston of Dunsford, ON. Gilbert Dash of Kipling, SK, is the alternate and Mick Lizmore is the head coach.
Joseph is the second oldest athlete on the Canadian team at 60, while Forrest holds the distinction of being the elder stateswoman at 63.
“My first Paralympics was during COVID in Beijing and it was a little strange,” Joseph said during a phone interview last week before heading to Italy. “It wasn’t like any other Paralympic competition I had experienced.”
Her Beijing Paralympic experience, as mute and odd as it was, finished with a team celebration on the ice as Canada scored four points in the eighth and final end for an 8-3 victory in the bronze-medal match.
Joseph wasn’t on the ice when the match ended, but she came down from the team coaching table at one end of the ice to join the party.
“I was the alternate and didn’t play much,” recalled Joseph, who is the manager of Standards Development and Research with Accessibility Standards Canada and a volunteer board member with Abilities Ottawa.
“I played one game, which was really exciting. It was the game against Korea and we lost (9-4, first loss after four opening wins). I played well in the second slot.”
Joseph spent the other 10 round-robin and playoff matches working with the coaching staff to gather information about the pathways the stones were travelling to reach the rings. In the evening, she would match rocks for the next day’s competition. She made sure the eight Canadian stones were as close to each other as possible in every technical area.
The journey from 2022 Paralympic alternate to 2026 Paralympic lead was a four-year process for Joseph. Unlike Curling Canada using a week-long trials process to select its men’s and women’s Olympic teams, the national sport governing body builds its Paralympic team over four years through talent identification, training camps, technical data and international competitions.
In 2015, Joseph was named to Curling Canada’s Next Generation team and was promoted to the national team for men and women four years later. At the 2019 world wheelchair curling championships, Joseph was the vice-skip or third on the Canadian team, which placed an alarming 10th, missed the playoffs and was relegated to the world B championships.
Using a different team of players, Canada saved faced by winning the world B championship in Lohja, Finland, and returned to the world A championships in 2020. Joseph represented Canada in three world championships over the past six years, winning the silver medal in 2020, bronze in 2025 and finishing fifth in 2021.
“In the first year of the new quad (quadrennial), the coaches and program staff would identify curlers to try out for the team,” explained Joseph, who trains at the R.A. Curling Centre of Excellence with high-performance director Gerry Peckham two to three times a week. “The first year has a larger pool and it’s reduced through the process of data collection and experiences.
“It’s a detailed process of data, experiences and camps. Five athletes are selected every year for the world championships plus two for mixed doubles. It’s a continuous process. This (season), there were more camps for the athletes. A decision was made in November (about the representatives).”
Throughout that process, Joseph experienced a variety of emotions, even though she has had success with the national team.
“You have confidence and you have doubts,” she admitted. “I understand this is part of the selection process. I’m used to what it takes to go. The selectors are always looking for ways to improve.”
Consistency over the past four years helped convince the Curling Canada selectors Joseph was worthy of being a Paralympian for a second time.
“I improved by getting a lot more consistency in my game, which is important,” added Joseph, whose communication with her teammates to share technical information also has significantly improved.
It’s one thing to say, “too bad you missed the shot,” but it’s more important to ask why the shot was missed, was the weight too heavy or did it travel the wrong pathway? That type of information helps her teammates.
While the majority of the Canadian athletes at the Milano Cortina Paralympics are in their 20s and 30s, the wheelchair curling team shows greatness can be achieved if you’re in your 40s, 50s and 60s.
The average age of the Canadian wheelchair team is 53.5 years as Forrest is 63, Joseph is 60, Ideson is 49 and Thurston is 42.
The more important number is Canada is ranked No. 2 in the world entering the Paralympics behind China, whose average age is 36.5 years.
COLLINDA JOSEPH COMPETITION SCHEDULE
Add Collinda Joseph’s schedule to your digital calendar with the button at the bottom of this page.
Ottawa at the Paralympics Newsletter
The Ottawa Sports Pages will produce an Ottawa at the Paralympics Newsletter throughout the March 6-15 Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games, featuring daily recaps, previews and competition schedules. Sign up to receive it in your inbox for free below.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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