ABOVE: Canada’s Sledge Hockey team are in the air tonight, on their way to Sochi for next month’s Paralympic games. Laura Zilke reports.
SOCHI, Russia – 54 Canadian athletes are heading to Sochi for next month’s Paralympic Games.
The Canadian Paralympic Committee announced the team for the March 7-16 Games on Wednesday.
Canada will compete in every Paralympic sport contested, including sledge hockey, wheelchair curling, para-alpine skiing, para-snowboard, para-Nordic skiing and biathlon.
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Canada’s team includes five guides for athletes with a visual impairment, including Erik Carleton, who will try to help Brian McKeever of Canmore, Alta., add to his collection of 10 Paralympic medals.
Other Canadian athletes include three-time Paralympian Robbi Weldon of Thunder Bay, Ont., who competed in cycling at the 2012 London Games, and three-time Paralympians Billy Bridges of Summerside, P.E.I., and Graeme Murray of Gravenhurst, Ont., of the men’s sledge hockey team.
Alpine skier Chris Williamson of Toronto, who has won 105 World Cup medals and three Paralympic medals, will also compete in his fourth Paralympics.
Canada’s goal is to finish top three in the gold-medal count, which was achieved at the 2010 Games in Vancouver with 10 gold among the 19 won.
Canada sent 220 athletes to the Olympics in Sochi and brought home 25 medals (10 gold, 10 silver, 5 bronze).
Approximately 575 athletes from 45 countries will compete at the Sochi Paralympics.
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