Mar 19, 2008

Chris Daw has represented Canada in adaptive track, marathon, basketball, rugby and curling. He was the skip for Canada’s gold-medal winning wheelchair curling team at the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. Daw returned to the Elderton Curling Club near London, Ontario, with his gold medal. He is a sitting member of Athletes Canada and the program development officer for Curling Newfoundland.

A Dream Lived by Chris Daw

I have had the opportunity and privilege of being able to represent Canada at five Paralympic Games, in five different sports, and in both Summer and Winter Games.

Ten days in March 2006 fulfilled my 25-year journey. For more than 25 years I have been involved in Paralympic sport and the Paralympic Movement, but nothing came close to the feeling of achievement when I won a gold medal at the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games.

Five years ago I came close to fulfilling my medal dream when I went to Australia to compete for the Canadian Wheelchair Rugby Team in the Sydney 2000 Games. We played well but missed the podium and finished just short of a medal in fourth place. I was ready to hang it up and call my dream incomplete. Then a new sport came along and changed my life forever.

I discovered curling

About seven years ago, the Canadian Curling Association (CCA) was asked to put a team together for what was going to be called the “First World Wheelchair Curling Championship”. Like any new wheelchair sport, a call went out asking for athletes. I answered. Five years later I found myself in international competition again — this time in curling.

All of my previous experience had been at the Summer Games, and for my first Winter Games, I was expecting everything that I had experienced before. Not the case. The pressure was on. When we speak of curling and Canada, let’s just say a podium spot is expected. The Torino Games was a little tougher than my previous Games. And with Brad Gushue’s Canadian curling team winning gold at the Olympics just weeks before us, the pressure for our wheelchair curling team went though the roof.

Teamwork in Torino

The Torino Games started out well with two wins. Then we had an unanticipated loss to Sweden before our time came to face Norway, one of the medal favourites.

We relied on teamwork to get us through the close Norway match. With Norway lying three in the fifth end, I had to play a raise so we could lay one. I don’t even remember what I was thinking, but I do remember what my lead, Sonja, said as I executed a perfect raise to place Canada’s stone in scoring under cover: “You rock, dude!” Excitement boiled over as Norway failed to execute. Waiting for the Norwegian skip to throw his last rock was, at that moment, the longest 20 seconds of my life.

In our next match, we lost to the United States and doubt loomed in our locker room as we prepared to face Great Britain, the two-time defending world champs. Somehow, in an extra end, we beat our archrival Great Britain, a team we had become friends with.

The next morning we played Italy, and after a challenge from the home team, we moved to the semis. The dream began to take shape. We moved to the gold medal final with Great Britain.

The final match

When we found ourselves in the gold medal game against Great Britain, we both began the greatest game we had ever played. This was the first ever wheelchair gold medal curling match in the Paralympic Games, and likewise, history in the making.

There was a crowd so loud you might think you were at a football game instead of a curling match. We already surpassed our own expectations. After the Games, I would learn that our coach thought we had a chance at a bronze medal, at best. And given that our curling team was only put together nine months before the Games, I think we all knew that we would give it our best but weren’t positioned to win. The gold medal game was close and I was prepared to win a silver medal. That’s when, in the last end, Great Britain missed our rock.

Not until the medal was hung around my neck, the flag raised and our anthem played. Not until hours after all the press and pictures had been taken did I realize what had happened. If five years ago someone said to me “you’re going to be a gold medallist,” I would have laughed, but today I sit as a Paralympic champion.

To sum up my Paralympic Winter Games experience: A fantasy fulfilled. A dream lived. 

Paralympic Perspectives  

Paralympic Perspectives is a celebration of the two-year countdown to the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. This series comprises personal stories written by Paralympians and leaders passionate about the Games. Visit vancouver2010.com every weekday from March 12 through March 21 for a new story of personal triumph and fierce competition.

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