Team Canada prevails in opening night battle against host country Italy

CORTINA d’AMPEZZO, Italy — It’s been twenty years of wheelchair curling at the Paralympic Games since its debut in Torino 2006, and the Saturday evening showing between Team Canada and Team Italy displayed the depth of talent and the level of excitement the sport continues to offer.

A confident Team Canada took to the ice for the first time on Saturday evening with a close 9-8 win over the Italians, and the atmosphere in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium was nothing short of electric in front of Italy’s home crowd.

The Canadians got off to an explosive start in their opening game at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games with a first-end steal of four, but that was just the beginning of what would be an exciting and very close game.

Team Canada, consisting of skip Mark Ideson (London, Ont.), vice-skip/third Jon Thurston (Dunsford, Ont.), second Ina Forrest (Spallumcheen, B.C.), lead Collinda Joseph (Ottawa), and fifth Gilbert Dash (Kipling, Sask.), set itself up nicely in the beginning but had Team Italy hot on its tail in the second half.

“That was an amazing atmosphere right there,” said Thurston. “The Italian crowd was there, and it was cool to have all the Canadian fans in there too cheering us on.

“That was a strong first half; we loved that first half, and we’ll take that any day, but Italy made a lot of shots in the second half, and so we’ll look at some game tapes, see what the coaches say, and look to continue to learn and get better as the week goes on.”

The Canadians quieted the home crowd almost immediately in the first end but gave it its first glimmer of hope in the second after a light draw by Ideson allowed Team Italy to put up two points on the board.

The atmosphere in the historic stadium certainly shifted, but Canada entered the third end with the hammer for the first time.

Facing two Canadian stones, Italian skip Egidio Marchese had his eyes set on a hit and stay to keep Canada to one point in the third, but his stone ran right through the house and left Canada with a draw for three.

Another Italian miss in the fourth end gave Canada a steal of two, but momentum turned around in the fifth. With a pileup at the back of the house, Marchese had to put multiple points on the board to stay in the game. In front of a crowd practically on its feet, he made a nice hit-and-roll to score two and to narrow the gap in the score.

“Luckily, we have experience on our side, and we had a pretty good lead early in the game, which really helped,” said Ideson. “Italy put the pressure on us hard in the second half of the game. They played really well, and it just required some scoreboard management from us.”

The sixth end started off strong for the host country, which seemed to have figured out its draw weight. Marchese used his last rock for a tap into the rings which blocked the easy draw for Ideson, who was forced to limit the damage and keep Italy to two.

After a well-played seventh end, it became a two-point game after the Italians stole for the third end in a row.

In a match that initially looked like an easy win for Canada, the Italian team found its stride late and put substantial pressure on. Thurston navigated a very tight port in the eighth for a takeout, but before the skips’ stones, Italy still sat two.

Marchese took away Ideson’s chance for a hit and forced him to make a draw under pressure for the win against a winding-down clock.

“I’ve thrown some draws to the four-foot before, so I wasn’t too worried about it,” said Ideson. “If I missed it, then the crowd just gets to see another end, and it was amazing out there. The crowd was incredible. We have almost 50 friends and family in the crowd, and you could barely hear them over the Italian crowd. It was amazing.

“We never really felt out of control; even in the last end, we were up two with hammer. So, we just had to make sure we didn’t give up a steal of three and lose the game.”

Ideson’s final stone won the game after a measure which kept Team Italy to only one point in the eighth end.

“We’ll definitely learn from this,” said Thurston. “We’ll definitely try and be a little more efficient with the time clock. I thought we were pretty good the first half, but by the second half, we ate a little clock there. So, we’ll look to get better.”

The Canadian team is supported by coaches Mick Lizmore and Dana Ferguson; team leader Kyle Paquette; team physiotherapist Sari Shatil; team physician Dr. Steven Macaluso; performance science lead Kyle Turcotte; and family and friends coordinator Wendy Morgan.

Team Canada will face Team Great Britain Sunday at 4:35 a.m. (all times Eastern) and Team Norway at 1:35 p.m.

For live scoring, team lineups, and standings, CLICK HERE.

All of Canada’s games will be broadcast on a variety of platforms by CBC, the official Paralympic rights-holder in Canada. CLICK HERE for the CBC broadcast schedule.