Canadian Paralympic team picked up Olympic baton, capturing record 28 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.