Canada’s wheelchair curling team finishes round robin unbeaten at Paralympics

By Canadian Press on March 12, 2026.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO — Canada’s wheelchair curling team finished a perfect 9-0 in round-robin play with a 7-3 win over the United States on Thursday at the Milan Cortina Paralympics.

Canada’s rink of Mark Ideson, Jon Thurston, Ina Forrest, Collinda Joseph and alternate Gilbert Dash also earned a 6-3 win over South Korea earlier in the day.

Canada, which clinched its semifinal spot on Wednesday, is the lone undefeated team in the standings. The Canadians will face South Korea on Friday in the semifinals.

“That’s pretty special and it’s a special moment to share with our teammates,” Ideson said. “But we still have work to do. We’ve got a big game in the morning and we’ve got to bring our best.”

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves in the preparation leading up to the Games,” added. “So now we’re just playing. We’re having fun representing our country, representing our teammates, representing ourselves, and we’ll bring our best.”

After winning gold at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Games, Canada managed bronze in the previous two Paralympics (2018, 2022). China, which will face Sweden in the other semifinal Friday, has won the last two Paralympic gold.

The bronze-medal game is Friday and the gold-medal game will go Saturday.

“We’re here for gold,” Thurston said. “We bring our best game tomorrow and we’ll have a good opportunity for that.”

Canada was stuck in a back-and-forth game with the U.S., as the rinks were tied 3-3 after four ends. However, the Canadians turned it on from there.

Canada picked up four points across the next three ends, leaving the Americans to concede the eighth and final end in the loss.

Earlier in the day, Canada jumped out to a 4-1 edge after four ends before the Koreans closed the gap to a one-point deficit following the sixth. But Canada scored a point in each of the final two ends to secure the win.

In para alpine skiing, Michaela Gosselin was the top Canadian in the women’s standing giant slalom finishing eighth with a time of two minutes 38.08 seconds. Florence Carrier placed 13th in 2:50.87.

Sweden’s Ebba Aarsjoe (2:22.42), Russia’s Varvara Voronchikhina (2:25.26) and France’s Aurelie Richard (2:27.04) stood on the podium.