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By Keiran Gorsky, Martin Cleary & Dan Plouffe
The Paralympic rookies are quickly becoming Paralympic stars. Para alpine skier Kalle Eriksson of Kimberley, B.C. and his guide Sierra Smith of Ottawa earned a second medal in as many races at their debut Paralympics with a bronze in the men’s visually impaired super-G.
WATCH CBC SPORTS | Canada’s Kalle Eriksson and guide Sierra Smith ski to Paralympic bronze
The pair got off to a brisk start and only picked up speed as they descended the slope in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Smith could be heard telling Eriksson to be “patient” over their two-way headset when he caught up with her close to the finish line.
“Kalle and I approached today trying to be as prepared as possible,” Mont Ste. Marie athlete Smith told the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “We had a strong game plan going in but I think what took us over the top was going in with a fighting attitude.”
Eriksson was eventually surpassed by Austria’s Johannes Aigner and Giacomo Bertagnolli of Italy, but beat out British skier Neil Simpson to cling to bronze.
“I’m so stoked. So happy with how Sierra and I are doing,” Eriksson told the Canadian Paralympic Committee while Smith held a miniature microphone up to him. “I’m really proud of it too, just how we’re controlling the nerves and the emotions and kind of going day to day here.”
‘A really tough day’: Crystal Globe winner Alexis Guimond on super-G DNF
Alexis Guimond and Brian Rowland’s bad fortune continued as they both recorded did-not-finish results in the standing and sitting super-G. The result was a particular disappointment for Guimond, who had a good claim to being the gold medal favourite.
The 26-year-old from Gatineau was in the form of his life in the lead-up to these Paralympics with podium finishes in all of his Super-G events at the World Cup, including three gold medals in Austria. The results earned him his first-ever Crystal Globe as the overall champion in the discipline.
“I have always fallen short. 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,” Guimond told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Martin Cleary before the Paralympics.
He hardly seemed himself as he swerved down the slope today. Guimond was already in the red before he stumbled through a turn in the early going. A series of bobbles saw him slip out of the course and eventually miss a gate in the lower section, disqualifying him.
The Canadian Paralympic team co-captain also recorded a DNF on Saturday when he struggled with soft snow and lost his balance, careening into the safety net in the downhill event.
Guimond made no attempt to hide his disappointment after the race.
“It’s a really tough day. These just aren’t my Games. It’s extremely frustrating,” he told Radio-Canada. “All season, my skiing was impeccable. I felt solid, but today, my head wasn’t in it, and neither were my tactics.
“I’ve built myself up over three years to get here, and to be so hesitant at this point is really frustrating.”
Guimond still had the fortitude to pump his fist in the air as he reached the bottom of the hill, probably to salute his family in the stands.
Rowland was the final racer of the day. The Merrickville native was 2.8 seconds in the red when he took to the air late in the course. It looked like he stuck the landing for a brief moment before he spun out of control and toppled over.
“I had the course memorized and knew I had to stay elevated throughout,” Rowland told the on-site media attaché afterwards. “I was being a little bit conservative and just trying to get that direction throughout the course. It was going well until I caught some air there.”
Rowland recorded DNFs at his previous two World Cup cuper-G runs in Saalbach, Austria and in the downhill event on Saturday.
‘He Loves What He Does’: para triathlete Nate Sparks on his mentor Tyrone Henry
Triathlete Nate Sparks possesses that ability to gleefully defy his body’s whinging.
“The reason I started para triathlon was because I hated cardio workouts,” recalled the 19-year-old from Carp. “So I wanted to force myself to do cardio workouts.”
Sparks has been in sports since his parents registered him at Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario (SHEO) when he was three years old. His parents were intent on keeping him active to combat the arthrogryposis multiplex congenita he was born with – a rare condition that severely restricts range of motion in the limbs.
At SHEO, Sparks met a young Tyrone Henry, who helped instruct intermediate teams at the time. He remembers Henry teaching him basic techniques and skill moves when he was little. As Sparks got older, Henry became something of a mentor figure.
Sparks admired a great deal about Henry’s approach, but above all, he valued his candidness. Henry was always remarkably unselfish when it came to sharing accumulated wisdom – he seemed to have a perfect piece of advice tailored to every stage in his development. There was something so pleasant about being around a para-athlete who seemed to genuinely be enjoying himself.
“He loves what he does,” said Sparks.
Sparks went on to represent Team Ontario at National Para Hockey Championships and was selected for a developmental “NextGen” camp in 2022. His pivot to triathlon was partly a symptom of his new university environment at McMaster, where he is studying kinesiology with his sights set on medical school. The prospect of storing his equipment in a dorm room and lugging it to an arena wasn’t so appealing.
“[Triathlon] is a little more accessible in university,” explained Sparks, who is hoping to qualify for the 2028 or 2032 Paralympics. “I have my hand cycle in my dorm room so I can wake up and start doing my training in a matter of minutes.”
Even so, Henry’s example has stuck with him.
“A lot of my ambitions are heavier things. You’re so busy doing work and putting in study hours that you can kind of lose the want to do it,” he said. “The original reason you started it all was because you loved it, and you got to, like, remember not to forget that part.”
Funnily enough, Henry was the only one of Team Canada’s SHEO alumni who didn’t play in Canada’s 14-0 beatdown of Japan this afternoon. The veteran defenceman was given the day off so younger players could get some ice time. The result was never in doubt for the Canadians, who didn’t celebrate even their early goals.
“We approach it the exact same way, just in terms of the habits and details we’re trying to implement and the structure we bring to it,” Henry outlined their tactical mindset against weaker opposition in an interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Keiran Gorsky the night before. “We’re going to always play our style if that makes sense.”
Gatineau’s Anton Jacobs-Webb tallied four helpers, three of them in the first period. He made a crisp saucer pass onto the stick of captain Tyler McGregor who scored the opening goal 39 seconds in.
Rob Armstrong nabbed three assists of his own, including the primary on the first of Dominic Cozzolino’s three on the night.
“He’s a great player, so he’s pretty easy to play with,” Henry said of Armstrong, whom he was paired with for parts of their opener against Slovakia. “We read off each other well and we have good dialogue, so I think it’s a good partnership on the defensive end.”
In wheelchair curling, Collinda Joseph was also given a break. Alternate Gil Dash took her place as lead as 4-0 Canada dispatched Latvia 11-1 this morning, stealing all 11 of their points before their opponents scored one and then conceded.
Ottawa Paralympians in action on March 10:
Day 4 Preview: Rob Armstrong & Canadian para ice hockey team keen to revive magic on Italian ice and end USA’s 4-Paralympics reign
Tuesday will be a very busy day for Ottawa Paralympians with competition in all their sports.
After two dominant opening victories, the trio of Canadian para ice hockey players from Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario will face fellow 2-0 side Czechia in their final Group B preliminary round match.
Canada’s path to the top place on the podium almost certainly will go through four-time reigning Paralympic champion Team USA, but a win over Czechia would likely mean the North American rivals wouldn’t see each other until the championship game, with Team USA leading Group A at 2-0 alongside fellow podium favourite China.
SHEO’s Rob Armstrong, Anton Jacobs-Webb and Tyrone Henry have all tasted defeat numerous times to powerhouse USA, but they’ve also shown serious shimmers of hope that an upset could be possible against the winners of four consecutive Paralympic crowns.
Armstrong, for one, draws inspiration in a strange way from the first time he jumped aboard 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.
But the Carleton University grad thought it was fantastic.
“That feeling of being able to get on the ice again was just so fun,” Armstrong reflected in conversation with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Keiran Gorsky before the 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, the Canadians 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, including the Beijing 2022 Paralympics when the Americans issued a 5-0 beatdown in the championship game.
Even before they dove headfirst into the infamous closed loop during the COVID-impacted Beijing Games, 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.
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 Italy, which was where Canada won its lone Paralympic ice hockey gold medal at Torino 2006.
“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 with a history/law degree in 2024.
You can read this full feature setting up the para ice hockey competition here on OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Also in action Tuesday: Ottawa para alpine ski guide Sierra Smith and Kimberley, B.C.’s Kalle Eriksson will have a chance to make it three podiums in three Paralympic appearances as they compete the men’s visual impairment alpine combined event. Alexis Guimond (men’s standing) and Brian Rowland (men’s sitting) are not entered in the combined.
Collinda Joseph and the 4-0 Canadian wheelchair curling team will face their stiffest challenge yet when they face reigning Paralympic and world-champion China in the morning, followed by Sweden (ranked #3 in the world, just behind Canada at #2) in the late draw.
And Emma Archibald will join in on the fun and make her Paralympic debut. The 22-year-old University of Ottawa Gee-Gee will begin her Paralympic career with the para cross-country skiing women’s standing sprint classic event.