B.C. Paralympic athletes get ready to soar on world stage

There are 17 B.C. athletes on Canada’s Paralympic team, which will compete in Vancouver and Whistler from Friday (March 12) to March 21. Another athlete, sledge hockey player Greg Westlake, was born in North Vancouver and lives in Ontario. In addition, there are four B.C. guides on Canada’s Paralympic team. In this article, we profile four athletes: Para-Nordic skiers Tyler Mosher, Mary Benson, and Lou Gibson, and wheelchair curler Sonja Gaudet. Here are the other B.C. residents competing in the Paralympic Games.

Men’s Para-alpine skiing
Vernon resident Josh Dueck, a 29-year-old former high-performance freestyle skier, is the 2009 IPC World Cup downhill champion. Whistler’s Sam Danniels, 23, is an ambassador with the Rick Hansen Foundation and came fourth in his first IPC World Cup downhill race last year. Morgan Perrin, a 23-year-old Whistler resident, has been ranked 27th in the IPC World Cup standings.

SFU business student Matthew Hallat, 25, is the 2009 Canadian slalom champion, and had two seventh-place finishes on the 2009 IPC World Cup circuit. “It’s a different world when I’m on the ski hill,” Hallat said in an SFU news release. “When I do the normal tasks of the day I am a disabled person. But when I step into a ski, I can ski with anyone.”

Women’s Para-alpine skiing
This is one of Canada’s strongest teams at the Paralympic Games, with all four B.C. members having a shot at taking home medals. Nanaimo’s Andrea Dziewior, 23, is the only Vancouver Island resident on Canada’s Paralympic team. She is ranked in the top 10 in five alpine events. Vancouver’s Karolina Wisniewska, 33, won two silver medals and two bronze medals at the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake City, as well as two silver medals at the 1998 Paralympics in Nagano. North Vancouver resident Lauren Woolstencroft, 28, has won five medals in the last two Paralympics: a gold and a silver in Torino in 2006, and two golds and a bronze in Salt Lake City in 2002. Rossland’s Kimberly Joines, 29, has had numerous first-place finishes on the IPC World Cup circuit and took home a bronze at the 2006 Paralympics in Torino.

Joines lost the use of her legs in a terrain-park accident in 2000. The biography on her Web site states: “No longer able to snowboard, the only sane decision was to strap into a sit ski, throw on a single ski and get back to shredding the way she always had.” Joines is a nine-year veteran of the Para-alpine ski team, and “her dream of global domination has begun to unfold.”

Women’s Para-Nordic skiing
Burnaby resident Courtney Knight, 34, has won bronze and silver medals in the Summer Paralympic Games in discus, as well as a silver in the pentathlon. In 2006, she decided to pursue cross-country skiing, with the goal of qualifying for this year’s Paralympics. If she wins a medal, the visually impaired skier will become these Games’ version of Clara Hughes by taking home medals from both the Summer and Winter Paralympics.

Smithers resident Jody Barber, 45, was a competitive triathlete when a car drove over her right arm in a cycling accident in 2006. She was told she would never ride a bike or swim again, but that didn’t stop her from resuming these activities. According to the Canadian Paralympic Committee Web site, her favourite quotation is: “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.”

Wheelchair curling
Richmond residents Jim Armstrong, 59, and Darryl Neighbour, 61, and Armstrong, B.C., resident Ina Forrest, 47, join Gaudet in rounding out Canada’s team at the Paralympic Games. Armstrong, Canada’s skip, competed in six Brier tournaments before a disability forced him out in 2003. He has made a remarkable comeback as a wheelchair curler, skipping Canada’s team to a gold medal at the 2009 world championships. Neighbour became a paraplegic in 2000 after falling off a roof, and was a member of Canada’s gold-medal-winning team at the 2009 world championships. Forrest took part in her first national competition in 2004. She was also on Canada’s 2009 world championship team. She told the Vernon Morning Star that these Games will be more meaningful because her family will be able to see her compete.

Guides
Kelowna resident Nick Brush (men’s Para-alpine skiing), Vancouver resident Andrea Bundon (women’s Para-Nordic skiing), Whistler resident Lindsay Debou (women’s Para-alpine skiing), and Vancouver resident Jamie Stirling (men’s Para-Nordic skiing) are the guides on the Canadian Paralympic team.