Wild Finish as Canada Defeats China for Paralympic Wheelchair Curling Gold

That. Was. Wild.

Canada skip Mark Ideson, with time running out and his team in disarray over who was shot stone (or not), made a last-ditch draw-tap to defeat China 4-3 and confirm the gold medal in Paralympic wheelchair curling fours at Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The wild finish capped an incredible month of multi-discipline Olympic and Paralympic curling that began on Feb. 4 in the beautiful Italian alps community.

The see-saw wheelchair final battle involved single scoring and one blank through the first six ends of play.

In end seven, China’s Wang Haitao trailed 3-2 with hammer as stones gathered in the back four-foot around a single centre guard.

Canada third Jon Thurston, on fire all week with circus shot displays, threw another on his last stone to lie three, but China third Chen Jianxin was up to the task with a wick-triple and spin up for shot rock.

Skip stones saw Wang and Canada skip Mark Ideson miss all four of their final throws, leaving Canada with last stone advantage in the final end, tied 3-3.

With the ice slowing, light throws continued into the 10th end, with veteran Ina Forrest being the first to draw into the house around four guards. Game on.

Chen was next in for shot stone, then Thurston went heavy and missed a double-peel, and it was up to Ideson to make a draw on his next-to-last throw. Ideson appeared to have shot stone, but no one knew for certain.

Wang was left with a double bump to get shot stone and missed, but as Canada’s CBC broadcasters celebrated the win, the Canadian athletes were baffled as to throw their last stone or not – or what to throw. 

Ideson eventually released his last stone with less than three seconds left on the shot clock… and made a perfect tap on his more-or-less shot stone to confirm Canada’s victory.

The champions had become known as the “Cardiac Canadians” through the Paralympics, and while the manner of victory fit perfectly with the description, it was the team’s escape in Friday’s semifinal that really cemented the nickname.

Canada was gifted their spot on the final after stealing three points in the final end to win 8-7 over Korea’s Lee Hyeon Chul.

Korea went on to lose the bronze medal game 7-4 to Sweden’s Viljo Petersson Dahl.

China’s Wang Haitao was looking to become the first wheelchair curling skip to capture three consecutive Paralympic gold medals.

Canada made Paralympic history by going undefeated (9-0) prior to the playoffs, defeating China and then Sweden in their last games of the round-robin.

The win comes after Canada won back-to-back bronze medals at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022, both won by China.