This coverage was first sent as an email newsletter to our subscribers. Sign up to receive it, for free, on our Ottawa at the Paralympics page.
By Dan Plouffe, Martin Cleary & Keiran Gorsky
It’s Games time! (Part II) After a quick recharge following a wonderful Winter Olympic Games, our Ottawa Sports Pages team is all revved up for a 10-day run of daily Ottawa at the Paralympics coverage from March 6-15.
During last month’s Olympics, six medals came home with Ottawa Olympians from Milano Cortina thanks to triumphs by Ivanie Blondin (speed skating gold and silver), Isabelle Weidemann (speed skating gold), Kayle Osborne (hockey silver) and Emma Miskew and Rachel Homan (curling bronze).
And despite being half the size of Ottawa’s Olympic contingent, we dare say that the capital’s eight Paralympians have the potential to match or eclipse that medal haul.
Leading the way is Canadian Paralympic team co-captain Alexis Guimond (who we’ll tell you more about in our Day 1 preview in a moment). Guimond won a medal at each of his first two Paralympics and will be a multi-medal threat in para alpine skiing.
Home to the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s head offices, the nation’s capital is massively overrepresented on Team Canada based on what you’d expect based on population. With roughly one out of six Canadian Paralympic team members owning capital connections, that’s more than four times more than the stats would suggest are likely.
Ottawa will have three Paralympians competing in para alpine skiing, another trio in para ice hockey, and one each in para cross-country skiing and wheelchair curling.
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The Paralympics are well behind the Olympics in the quest for gender equity in sport, with the “mixed” para ice hockey competition (featuring almost exclusively male players, and no female division) accounting for a big part of the discrepancy.
With three women out of eight, Ottawa’s ratio is superior to Team Canada’s (36 male, 14 female), and Sierra Smith holds a nearly unique distinction as one of the few female skiers guiding a male athlete at the Games.
We’ll look forward to telling you more about all of our local Paralympians as we go through the Games in our coverage each day, but we’ve also got pre-Games stories on them if you’re keen to get extra primed for the start of competition Saturday.
Here is Team Ottawa for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympics:
Ottawa at the Paralympics – what’s in store
If you followed us during the Olympics, you’ve got a good sense of what to expect from our upcoming Ottawa at the Paralympics daily coverage.
From today until the Games close on March 15, subscribers to our free newsletter will find us in your inbox each evening with recaps of that day’s events, a preview of what’s to come the next day, Paralympian profiles, schedules and more.
Our OTTAWA PARALYMPIANS’ SCHEDULES PAGE will be an even greater tool to save you from time change mathematics for the Paralympics because of our blessed spring time change (we do that Saturday night/Sunday morning in Ontario, but Italy prefers to wait another two weeks *insert love for British Columbia here*).
If you want to watch the action live, CBCsports.ca and CBC Gem are the place to go. We’ll be sharing lots of clips and coverage from Canada’s national Paralympics broadcast rightsholder throughout the Games when they highlight Ottawa athletes too.
On top of this newsletter, you can find all of our coverage in one place on our Ottawa at the Paralympics central webpage at:
OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-at-the-Paralympics
If you’ve got friends who love the Olympics, be sure to let them know they can sign up to get our free daily newsletters there too.
Ottawa Paralympians in action on March 7:
Day 1 Preview: Learning to deal with downtime helps Canadian Paralympic team co-captain Alexis Guimond find para alpine ski success
Team Canada did not attend Friday’s Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympic Winter Games, which were held in Verona at a historic 2,000-year-old Roman Amphitheatre but a long trip away from competition venues.
With competition starting for seven of Ottawa’s eight Paralympians on Saturday, business had to trump pleasure on this occasion.
Para alpine skiing gets the show started bright and early, and Ottawa could well have a podium performance in the books by the time many are waking up on Saturday (with the exception of the earliest risers and the most devoted Paralympic fans of course).
Sierra Smith, Alexis Guimond and Brian Rowland will descend the Dolomites for the downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
For Guimond, after a decade of manoeuvring down some of the world’s best mountains with speed and courage as a member of the Canadian para alpine ski team, the Gatineau athlete has finally reached the top of the mountain.
Guimond’s best-ever World Cup season in the men’s standing alpine category has made him a serious candidate for winning a medal or medals in his third consecutive Winter Paralympics. In his first two Paralympics, he won bronze medals in super-G at Beijing 2022 and in giant slalom at PyeongChang 2018.
Guimond, who is unable to hold a ski pole in his right hand because of paralysis as a result of an accidental fall when he was a baby, heads to the start hut with full confidence for his upcoming downhill, super-G and giant slalom races.
On the World Cup circuit this season, the 26-year-old posted victories in three super-G races as well as a third-place result. Those four results allowed him to win his first Crystal Globe trophy as the World Cup men’s standing super-G champion.
Guimond’s stellar season also has included his first-ever downhill victory, which was a key part of an 11-medal World Cup campaign. He finished second in the race for the downhill Crystal Globe trophy.
“It was amazing. I finally got my hands on it,” Guimond said in a phone interview with Ottawa Sports Pages High Achievers columnist Martin Cleary, describing the feeling of winning the coveted World Cup Crystal Globe trophy for the super-G discipline.
“I have always fallen short,” he added. “In the past, I have been second or third. I’m proud of what I have done. I’m really excited for the opportunity to showcase what I’ve done.”
It has taken several years for Guimond to develop all his skills, physical and mental, to become a contending downhill racer.
“It was a fierce battle,” he added about the race for the Crystal Globe in the downhill discipline. “I felt good in the downhill this season, consistently strong. I’ve hit my stride in the speed events.
“I have always been competitive from the beginning of my career. But I’ve never got what it takes to get over to the top of the podium.”
Guimond secured his first and almost a second Crystal Globe for a variety of reasons as he continues to emerge and improve as a speed skier in super-G and downhill.
A big part of that has been figuring out how to make the best use of his downtime away from the ski hills. You can read more about that in Cleary’s full feature here on OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Also in action on Saturday: Collinda Joseph gets her wheelchair curling competition underway with a bang as she and Team Canada face the host Italians.
And Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario products Rob Armstrong, Tyrone Henry and Anton Jacobs-Webb have their opening match of the para ice hockey tournament against Slovakia.
We’re look forward to telling you more about all the action tomorrow evening, when you’ll hear from us next. Enjoy the 2026 Games, Part II!
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.
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