The province has a new health plan. But you know the old saying about the best laid plans o' mice and men ...
In today's Wood File, Murray appreciates everyone has good intentions regarding health care, but notes it's been a long ...
Sitting in the start gate at a Paralympics wasn’t new to para skier Kurt Oatway, but it’s a feeling he hadn’t experienced for quite some time.
Last weekend, the 42-year-old Calgarian finally had the chance to breathe in the air of a Paralympic mountain and compete alongside the best para athletes in the world once again.
“It’s a lot of work from me,” Oatway said. “It’s a lot of work from my coaching staff, my teammates and my friends and family to get me back here.”
Read more:
- Special start for Team Canada with three medals at Paralympics
- Kipling’s Gilbert Dash representing Canada at Paralympics for first time
- Prince Albert’s Brittany Hudak competes in fourth Paralympic Games
Oatway made the most of his return to the Paralympic stage in Italy on Saturday in the men’s sitting downhill event, recording a time of 1:19.42 to earn a bronze medal for Canada.
The Paralympic podium finish comes four years after one of Oatway’s most devastating moments as an athlete: crashing at the 2022 World Championships in Norway and suffering extensive injuries including a broken collarbone, two torn ligaments, multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung.
The crash happened just one month out from the 2022 Beijing Paralympics, forcing Oatway to miss that year’s Games.
“Being out of 2022 was pretty rough,” Oatway shared. “I was very competitive then. I’m still competitive now and coming off the races I did just in January, I ended up having four World Cup medals in downhill and Super G, so I’m very much a contender.”
Growing up in Alberta, Oatway developed a love of skiing through his family. His mother, Carol, urged her son to find a safe avenue to get down the hill.
“She figured if you guys are going to ski and skiing is dangerous, you’re learning how to do it properly,” Oatway said. “She put us in racing and I did that all through my youth until I was about 16 (years old) or so.”
As a young adult, Oatway stepped away from the sport as he pursued a geology degree at the University of Saskatchewan.
While on a university trip to Utah in 2007, Oatway’s life changed in an instant when he fell 40 feet while rock climbing and suffered a spinal cord injury.
It wasn’t until 2010, after watching the Vancouver Games, when Oatway got the itch to return to the mountain. He connected with Mission Ridge Winter Park near Fort Qu’Appelle through his physiotherapist in Saskatoon.
“She introduced me to Gord Poulton, out of the Regina Alpine Ski Team,” Oatway said.
“He invited me out one weekend to go try the sit-ski out at Mission Ridge. I kind of fell in love with it there and have been doing it ever since.”
Less than four years later, Oatway made his Paralympic debut for Team Canada in Sochi, Russia before his true coming out party at the 2018 PyeongChang Games where he landed on top of the podium with a gold medal in sitting Super G – a feeling he was able to experience again on Saturday in Italy, but with a gold medal being his ultimate prize for the rest of the Paralympics.
“Getting back on top would be the culmination of the last eight years since the last cycle,” Oatway said. “A little of redemption, too, from 2022 for not being able to make it because I blew my shoulder up.”
Oatway did not finish in either the sitting Super G or alpine combined events this week, with two more events on the way before the end of the Paralympics in slalom and giant slalom.
While his plans post-Italy haven’t been announced, Oatway said he’s grateful for the path he’s taken to his third Paralympics and the two provinces that have helped him to the podium.
“I’m in a good place right now,” Oatway said. “It’s just kind of taking it one day at a time and ease into things.
“You might be in your 40s, but you’re not dead yet. There’s a lot of things you can still do.”
