No hockey gold but Canada sets new mark for Paralympic medals
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of
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.
The Paralympic team’s performance comes a month after Canada recorded a bestever winter Olympics with 29 medals.
Canada dropped a 2-1 hockey heartbreaker to the United States in overtime Sunday to wrap up the Paralympics. Declan Farmer scored both American goals, his first with 38 seconds left in regulation then the winner 3:30 into overtime.
Bridges had Canada’s lone goal in the first period.