Canada wins record 28 Paralympic medals
On the night Canada’s curlers lost a last-rock heartbreaker in the Paralympic semifinals, hockey player Billy Bridges was waiting up for them when they returned home to the athletes village.
“Billy gave me a pat on the back and said ‘You’ve got to go tomorrow and win that medal for us,’ meaning the whole team Canada,” said skip Mark Ideson, who led Canada to bronze. “And that really put things back in perspective for me. So (Saturday) we played for Canada.”
The Canadian team of 55 athletes strong had set a cautious goal of 17 medals at the Pyeongchang Paralympics, one better than four years ago in Sochi.
But the Canadians blew past that mark with several days still to go and never looked back, capturing 28 medals to crush their previous best of 19 in 2010 in Vancouver.
The athletes credited Canada’s performance to a strong sense of teamwork, and a solid group of young stars on the rise.
“There were no down days, I think we were riding the high,” said Mark Arendz, whose six medals in biathlon and cross-country skiing earned him the role as the team’s flagbearer in Sunday’s closing ceremonies. “We started on this wave and we were riding it, not just nordic, but everyone here in team Canada contributed to that as well.”
The 28 medals were second best behind the United States (36). Ranking by gold medals, Canada, with eight golds, was third behind the Americans (13), and the Neutral Paralympic Athletes from Russia, who had eight gold but more silver than Canada.
Canada’s nordic team — biathlon and cross-country — led the way with 16 medals.
“Nothing unexpected for us, but it took absolutely everything, and that’s what you want at a Paralympic Games, to hit that peak and get as much out of our team as we can,” said Brian McKeever, who raced to three gold, plus a bronze Sunday in the relay. “We did it, and it was great teamwork. That’s been our theme is teamwork.”
The Paralympic team’s performance comes a month after Canada recorded a best-ever winter Olympics with 29 medals.
“That gets us off on the right foot,” said Arendz. “I personally love watching the Olympics. That gets the spirit going, and then the closing of the Olympics, and then you’re like ‘Oh wow, now it’s our turn.’”
The Olympic team handed off the baton, and the Paralympic team took it and ran.
“Following the Olympic Games, you always have that pressure in terms of how our Olympic counterparts did,” said Canada’s chef de mission Todd Nicholson. “They paved the way for us, in order to create that atmosphere to be successful here.”
Nicholson, wearing a chef’s hat and apron — a tongue-in-cheek nod to his role as team “chef” and leader — said the Paralympians arrived in Pyeongchang ready to go.
“They came here prepared, mentally and physically, and in the best shape that they possibly could be in, to leave it all on the field of play. Everybody peaked at the right time,” he said.
McKeever, who became the country’s most decorated winter Paralympian in Pyeongchang, also credited the changing culture in Canada, and the support Paralympic athletes receive from Sport Canada, Own The Podium, and their various corporate sponsors.
“When I started in 2002, there was very little funding, we were picking up the scraps of what was left over from the able-bodied programs,” said the 38-yearold. “I remember doing World Cup trips with one coach and also I was helping with wax testing and waxing and we were doing it all as one group.”
McKeever, whose remarkable career spans five Paralympics, hopes Canada’s performance has touched people — and most importantly young people with disabilities — back home.