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By Keiran Gorsky, Martin Cleary & Dan Plouffe
Ottawa para alpine skiers flew out of the gate to kick off Paralympic proceedings on Saturday morning. Competitors were greeted with an overeager sun that slowly softened the snow as it rose over the Italian Dolomites.
Visually impaired (VI) skier Kalle Eriksson and his guide Sierra Smith of Ottawa were fortunate to get their event underway at the front of the pack on the men’s side, just before competitors began to spiral out of control. In their Paralympic debut, the tight-knit pair cruised to a silver medal with a time of 1:18.33.
WATCH CBC SPORTS | Kalle Eriksson, Sierra Smith win silver for Canada’s 1st medal at Milano-Cortina Paralympics
“It was incredible. I was able to kind of catch a glimpse of the Canadian flag being raised up there,” Eriksson told the CBC after the event. “And just knowing that me and Sierra put it on the second highest block today, it made me pretty proud.”
Both of them faced their share of trials and tribulations in the lead-up to Milano Cortina. Eriksson dislocated his shoulder early in his FIS World Cup campaign and then bruised his knee in January. Smith has dealt with a nagging knee issue, and the two missed their final two World Cup events in February.
“Mine (injury) was pretty recent so I was quite nervous,” Smith told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Keiran Gorsky in an interview afterwards. “But with the team and medical staff, we took the proper steps, got on snow when we could.
“Coming into these Games, we didn’t have the experience on the race course this season that we wanted. Not as many days as a lot of our competitors. But I think we brought it where it counts.”
Smith sported her usual bright pink garb on the big stage – the colour Eriksson sees best with his reduced peripheral vision. She looked over her shoulder periodically as they snaked down the course together.
Paralympic crowds are instructed to keep quiet during VI events so competitors can hear their guides over their two-way headsets. Smith’s voice belted out – perhaps a little apprehensively – over the scrape of skis on snow. Eriksson admitted to feeling “tons of nerves” in what was the biggest race of his young career.
“I think our speeds were quite a bit higher today, which caught us off guard in a couple of spots,” Smith explained.
The connection between athlete and guide is inherently intimate in any VI event, but Smith and Eriksson share an extra special connection. Off the hill, away from the snow, the two are also partners.
“We have so much trust in each other,” Smith offered. “Being able to experience racing at 120 kilometres an hour with Kalle is an unreal feeling.”
“We keep each other calm when it matters most,” Eriksson agreed.
Eriksson managed to calm himself down by embracing the scope of the event.
“I kind of looked out and I realized that it’s just a privilege in general to be able to start at a Paralympic downhill,” he said.
Eriksson celebrated afterwards with his father and coach Lasse. It was also the first time Smith’s parents ever watched her race with Kalle in-person.
Alexis Guimond and Brian Rowland DNF in tough conditions
Alexis Guimond and Brian Rowland were somewhat less fortunate. The snow surface was soft and loose by the time of the men’s standing event. Guimond wished he had taken better account of the wear and tear on the course before he sped out of the gate in the afternoon.
“I went way too aggressive in my tactics,” Guimond told Gorsky.
The Gatineau native leaned all the way forward and fell almost immediately. The crowd went silent as he crashed into the safety netting. They breathed a collective sigh of relief when he brushed the snow off and pulled himself right back up.
“I didn’t really initiate the turn when I needed to, and with that type of snow, it costs you everything,” he explained. “I ended up leaning in too much inside to compensate for that, and yeah, that cost me.”
Downhill isn’t his flagship event, but Guimond had reason to be hopeful after a slew of impressive World Cup results. He even topped the podium in downhill for the first time in his career at the January race in Saalbach, Austria. The Canadian Paralympic team co-captain admitted to feeling less than his best after a crash in his final training run on Thursday.
Guimond is looking forward to the giant slalom and super-G, having medaled in both at past Paralympics. In the meantime, he can always count on the support of friends and family after difficult outings.
“We’ll eat cafeteria pizza and we’ll call it a day,” he laughed.
Rowland, meanwhile, was one of 11 skiers to record a DNF in the men’s sitting discipline – the same number that crossed the finish line. Rowland struggled to turn cleanly all the way down the slope, spraying heaps of snow overhead.
The 39-year-old from Merrickville hit a patch of soft snow nearing the final third and spun off the course. The veteran still found room for optimism.
“I’m proud with the way I pushed out of the gate and had good intentions and was very confident and had the course memorized and knew the line I wanted to take,” he said.
At age 36, Rowland won his first ever medal at a World Cup downhill race in Sella Nevea, some three hours from Cortina d’Ampezzo. He maintained that he still feels confident going into super-G and giant slalom.
Canada holds on for opening wheelchair curling win over hosts
Canada’s Team Mark Ideson narrowly held on to top Italy’s Team Egidio Marchese 9-8 in their opening round robin game.
Lead Collinda Joseph of Ottawa might not have expected her first throw at these Paralympics to prove decisive. Her first yellow stone bit the edge of the house and remained there for the entire opening end. Marchese failed to reach the house on his final throw, allowing Canada to steal four.
Joseph stayed hot in the early goings, taking out a stone on her first throw of the third end and following up with a well-placed guard on the centre line. Ideson proceeded to draw his final stone for three points. Canada stole two more to take a commanding 9-2 lead after four.
“We have experience on our side, and we had a pretty good lead early in the game, which really helped,” Ideson told Curling Canada.
Some teams might have conceded at this point, especially given wheelchair curling only goes to eight ends – the Italians opted not to in front of their home crowd. Joseph got off to a poor start in the game’s second half, her light stone wicking off an Italian guard but remaining in play. Marchese made an impressive hit and roll on his final stone of the end to claim a vital two points.
“Italy made a lot of shots in the second half, and so we’ll look at some game tapes, see what the coaches say, and look to continue to learn and get better as the week goes on,” Canadian third Jon Thurston said to Curling Canada.
Italy seemed to develop a better understanding of their home ice while Joseph’s release trended wayward. Her first throw of the sixth inadvertently sent Italian lead Angela Menardi’s guard into the house. Ideson cleared that stone on his penultimate throw of the end, but allowed Italy to steal two more points. Team Marchese stole another in the seventh to make it 9-7.
Joseph’s final throw was perhaps her best of the game, creeping through two guard stones to draw into the edge of the house. Italy managed to lie two closer to the button, leaving Ideson a difficult draw on his final throw with Canada’s clock soon to expire. A final measurement showed that his final stone was marginally closer to the button – the Italians stole another, but the Canadians escaped with the win.
“I’ve thrown some draws to the four-foot before, so I wasn’t too worried about it,” Ideson told Curling Canada. “If I missed it, then the crowd just gets to see another end.”
Canada cruises in para ice hockey opener
In what was their first ever match-up, Canada walloped Slovakia 8-0 in their opening para ice hockey game of the preliminary round. Sledge Hockey Eastern Ontario (SHEO) alumni Anton Jacobs-Webb, Tyrone Henry and Rob Armstrong all appeared for Canada.
Jacobs-Webb formed a high-octane line with captain Tyler McGregor and speedy Liam Hickey. The 25-year-old from Gatineau was deployed as something of a grinder, freeing up McGregor and Hickey to terrorize a helpless Slovak defence.
Jacobs-Webb nabbed a secondary assist on the third goal, leaving the puck for Hickey behind the goal line. Hickey directed the puck to McGregor in the face-off circle, who rifled it past netminder Eduard Lepacek to the sound of a roaring crowd nearly 4,500-strong.
Slovak sojourns up the ice, few though they were, were also greeted with great excitement. That marked a sharp contrast from Beijing 2022, where Jacobs-Webb lamented the dry atmosphere.
“It wasn’t much of a Paralympic experience, honestly,” the 25-year-old told Gorsky of his time in Beijing before these Paralympics. “It was so spread out… that there [were] all these COVID restrictions really meant that we just couldn’t get that atmosphere.”
Frequently paired together on defence, Team Canada assistant captain Henry and Armstrong had remarkably little to do, Slovakia managing just two shots on net all game long. The bulk of their efforts amounted to keeping the puck in at the blue line.
Armstrong did record an assist on the seventh goal, propelling the puck to Paralympic debutant Vincent Boily in the neutral zone, who deked his way into the slot and beat Lepacek glove side.
“We kind of need those younger guys to kind of step up and take on some bigger roles,” Armstrong told Gorsky before the Paralympics. “I think we have such a great composition and it’ll be a great product on the ice.”
Canada will take to the ice again on Monday to take on Japan, a more experienced para ice hockey nation.
Ottawa Paralympians in action on March 8:
Day 2 Preview: Wheelchair curler Collinda Joseph keen for a true taste of Paralympic Winter Games this time
On the second day of competition at the Milano Cortina Paralympics, it’s all about Collinda Joseph for the Ottawa crew. After holding on for a win over host Italy in their opener, Joseph and the Canadian wheelchair curling team will face a pair of solid challenges in Great Britain (ranked sixth in the world) and Norway (#4). Canada is ranked second.
These Paralympics have a whole new look this time around for second-time Paralympian 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 Games, Joseph expected 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 her team’s nine round-robin matches, followed (hopefully) by playoffs and medal matches finishing March 14.
The Canadian team has about 40 supporters wearing national team colours and waving the flag in Cortina. Joseph has a contingent of nine in her corner, including her husband and two daughters.
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 in a phone interview with Ottawa Sports Pages High Achievers columnist Martin Cleary 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, who trains at the R.A. Curling Centre of Excellence with high-performance director Gerry Peckham two to three times a week.
You can read Cleary’s full feature on Joseph here on OttawaSportsPages.ca.
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