VANCOUVER ”“ It’s not always about personal achievement when it comes to gold medals for Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Often it’s about raising the profile of the sport an athlete so passionately dedicates his or herself to for four or more years.
It was just this that Jim Armstrong, skip of Canada’s Paralympic gold medal winning wheelchair curling team, has striven to achieve over the course of Vancouver’s 2010 Paralympics. And after defeating Korea 8-7 over the course of eight ends at Vancouver’s Paralympic Curling Centre on March 20, it was clear from the thousands of people who filled the venue that wheelchair curling was at home in Canada.
“The big thing — and I truly think it’s going to speak volumes for wherever we’re going in the future — the fans. This place was packed. It was rockin’!” exclaimed an ecstatic Armstrong.
“I think it’s a new breed. Able-bodied (curling) we saw it and, be damned, we saw it here too,” added the triumphant Armstrong, referring to Canadian counterpart curler Kevin Martin’s gold medal win during the Olympics.
Armstrong, a native of British Columbia, was an able-bodied curler for much of his life and is no stranger to the curling rink. His six Brier appearances over the course of his lengthy career and the key role he played in getting the concept of curling officiating off the ground have made Armstrong a successful curler in both able-bodied and wheelchair curling.
Now 58 years old, Armstrong competed in his last Brier in 1992 and transitioned to wheelchair curling in 2007 after knee and back injuries made it too painful to walk. Still in the process of adapting to a new way of life, Armstrong lost his wife Carleen to a battle with cancer in the fall of 2009 and has since found peace hurling rocks down sheets of ice.
After being decorated with his Paralympic gold medal, Armstrong said his deceased wife’s spirit was indeed present for his and Canada’s superb achievement — and likely helped fend off Korea in the eighth end after Korea was able to manage a six-point comeback before Canada finally buried them 8-7.
“She was here. Last spring when she was diagnosed as terminal there were two things she wanted. She wanted one more Christmas, and today. I know she was here today.”
Fresh off a cameo at Canada’s bronze medal sledge hockey game on March 19, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was again in attendance at the Paralympic Curling Centre for Armstrong and company’s golden moment.
“He (Harper) says there’s an election coming and I best vote for him,” Armstrong joked.
“No he didn’t — but I will anyway,” added with a smile.
Though born and raised in B.C., Armstrong’s father’s roots stem from Rosetown, Sask., just south of Saskatoon. And judging by other grassroots Saskatchewan support for Canadian athletes, the residents of Rosetown were likely celebrating well into the night of Armstrong’s gold medal.
“An Armstrong is an Armstrong is an Armstrong,” said the jolly wheelchair curling champ.
“I’m sure they’ll remember my dad — and with that they’ll remember me. Over the years I’ve had a lot of people pulling for me because of my roots,” he said.
And what’s next for Canada’s newest golden boy?
“I’m probably going to have a bit of a party tonight and catch up on some well-earned sleep,” chuckled Armstrong.
Since Canada’s sledge hockey team folded in the bronze medal game to Norway, Canada’s wheelchair curling team will become the Paralympics’ newest gold medal poster child and the gold medal marks the conclusion of the Vancouver portion of the Paralympics.
Third of Canada’s wheelchair curling team, Darryl Neighbour also gushed about the amazing fan reaction and treatment he and his team had been receiving in the Paralympic Village.
“I’ve never been treated so well and the village is just absolutely — we’re literally being treated like royalty,” said Neighbour, who has won bronze, silver and gold during his career at the National Wheelchair Curling Championships.
Neighbour was injured on a construction site in 2000 where he lost the use of his legs. After a lengthy period of rehabilitation, he started playing wheelchair tennis, which resulted in his transition to wheelchair curling.
Without a doubt, the popularity of wheelchair curling will experience a huge influx in fanfare in coming years, much as sledge hockey would have ballooned if Canada’s team could have brought home a medal.
Major differences between Paralympic wheelchair curling and able-bodied Olympic curling lie in the eight ends for wheelchair, as opposed to ten in the Olympics, there is no sweeping in wheelchair curling and players often brace or pivot teammates who are throwing rocks. Instead of sliding and releasing stones, wheelchair curlers use a thin metal pole to throw rocks but are still able to curl rocks by use of in-turns and out-turns.
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