Milano Cortina 2026: Canada win game of nerves - and wheelchair curling gold

The atmosphere was electric at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium for what can only be described as a wheelchair curling mixed team gold medal match for the ages.

Canada and China were neck and neck throughout the match, the nearly sold-out crowd on the edge of their seats knowing it might come down to the final shot. 

When it did, it led to a dramatic ending that nobody could have predicted. 

Tied 3 to 3 in the eigth and final end, Canadian skip Mark Ideson found his range to put his Canadian rock apparently the same distance away from the button as the Chinese rock. It was impossible to tell with the naked eye who was closer and would have required a measurement to determine the winner. 

When Chinese skip Haitao Wang failed to get his next rock any closer to the button, it was up to the Canadians. But time was running out before they had to shoot. 

Jon Thurston, who was one of the stars for Canada throughout the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, picked up the story. 

“We were tight on time,” Thurston said. “I was able to look at the stone in the house and also on the [big] screen. I did think we were shot (closer). But I didn’t want us to lose the Paralympics because I guessed wrong.”

Despite the pressure of the moment, Ideson channeled inner calm and eventually delivered a well-placed shot, tapping his team’s rock closer to the button to score the winning point to give Canada the 4 to 3 victory. 

Confusion reigns

A large crowd of Canadian fans had constantly chanted, “Go Canada, go”. Now they erupted. The Canadian players hugged and pumped their fists. 

Asked about the pressure of that final shot, Ideson said there was “a lot of confusion” beforehand. 

“We weren’t 100 per cent sure whether we were shot rock or not. The clock was running down so rather than leave it to chance we thought we would make the shot. Luckily, I had just thrown a similar shot,” Ideson said. 

Thurston said the team agonised over the final shot to make sure the gold was truly in the bag. 

“It was really hard to communicate with the time crunch and the noise of the venue,” Thurston said. 
“Thankfully Mark threw a pistol and that was it.... Mark did it all week for us. He’s a great leader.” 

Thurston goes viral

Thurston and the Canadian team had been turning heads with their play in Milano Cortina.

Thurston had a shot in an earlier game that went viral after it found its way through a tiny hole between rocks to score crucial points. Some have referred to it as one of the best wheelchair curling shots of all time. It has been viewed in Canada more than a million times. 

The Canadian team went undefeated in 11 games at Milano Cortina 2026. This is the country’s first gold medal in wheelchair curling since Sochi 2014.

Ina Forrest is one of the veterans on a Canadian team that has won medals in five straight Paralympics. She said afterwards this one is extra special. 

“Having that historic, undefeated and being most decorated, just gets our sport out there more and you always hope that encourages somebody who is thinking about getting into sport, or a parent who is looking to enrich their child’s life, that they will consider sport, and we hope they think about wheelchair curling and make that part of their life.” 

China's external voices

Chinese coach Qingshuang Yue felt his curlers had not handled the tension as well as their opponents and had allowed their round-robin defeat to Canada to play on their minds.

"We should let go of what needs to be forgotten, allowing our minds to be clear and quiet. I have an observation, which is that the external voices are quite restless.

"It's about how we can help athletes perform more steadily in such a state during training. Usually at our training ground, I play some songs, loud noises like that, and then try my best to help interfere with them. 

"Because I also tell them that, during the competition, the audience is something you can't control. The only thing you can control is yourself."

The Chinese team had an unusual way of going about that, letting out primal screams on releasing each stone, urging it into the house to the delight of a boisterous group of Chinese fans.

China look to fresh blood

China's Jianxin Chen said the variable ice conditions made it difficult to be as precise as he would have liked.

"It took a few rounds before I completely realised that the smoothness of the surface is different on both sides,” he said. “And since the smoothness is different on both sides, my reaction was still a bit slow. It's just about actively adjusting yourself.

"I thought my performance today was particularly poor, and I have been performing quite poorly since the very beginning. It might also be because I had a high fever before the competition, which slightly affected my condition.”

China had won the past two Paralympic mixed team golds. And skip Haitao Wang and coach Yue saw no need to panic about the nation’s progress. 

"China's wheelchair curling has already reached a very high international level, hasn't it?” Wang said. “You see, the mixed doubles took first place, and we took second.”

Yue was also confident of future success.

“Our team also has fresh blood being injected from behind,” he said. “So I believe there may continuously be new faces appearing, which shows we have been on this path all along, allowing more people to enter the world championships, Olympics, and achieve their dreams.”