The team will be consist of skip Jim Armstrong, vice-skip Dennis Thiessen, second Ina Forrest, lead Sonja Gaudet, and alternate Mark Ideson, along with coach Joe Rea and team leader Wendy Morgan. 

Armstrong, Forrest, Gaudet, Rea and Morgan were all part of the team that won gold at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, while Gaudet, Rea and Morgan also featured when the sport made its Paralympic debut at Turin 2006.

Thiessen and Ideson will be competing at their first Games in Sochi but were present at the 2013 World Championships held at the same Ice Cube Curling Centre in Sochi last February - when an identical Canada squad also took the gold medal. 

On that occasion Armstrong won his third world title shortly after returning from a shortened drugs ban following a positive test for Tamoxifen.

Armstrong claimed that the banned drug had been prescribed for his late wife when she was receiving treatment for breast cancer and had got mixed up with his own medication.

He was originally handed an 18 month ban by the World Curling Federation (WCF) but that was cut to just six months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last September after ruling that the WCF "did not properly exercise its discretion" when passing judgement.

The same Canadian team has been picked which won the 2013 World Championships ©Scott Grant/Canadian Paralympic Committee



"We couldn't be happier with the team we've nominated to send to Sochi, and we're confident this group of athletes gives us our best possible chance to win an unprecedented third Paralympic gold medal," said Canadian Curling Association chief executive Greg Stremlaw.

"The next three months will focus on the finer details to be at our best come March 7."

Coach Joe Rea was similarly confident that Canada will continue their winning run in 2014

"I feel very good about this lineup going into the Paralympic Winter Games," he said.

"Prior to the 2013 World Championship, we knew there was some exceptional talent, but there's always a question about how a new lineup will come together.

"The group worked extremely well together in Sochi, and since then the commitment, on and off the ice, from all five athletes has been amazing."

The team will open their Paralympic programme on March 8 against Great Britain, with the likes of World Championship runners up Sweden, along with China and the USA set to pose the sternest challenge.  

The full Canadian Paralympic Team for Sochi will be officially unveiled in February. 

With a goal of placing in the top three nations in the gold medal count, Canada will send 50 athletes to compete across every discipline.  

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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