Wheelchair curling lead Collinda Joseph out to prove age is just a number at Milano-Cortina Games

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During my first conversation with Collinda Joseph, what struck me the most was her sense of competition.

Not only is she a two-time Paralympian, but she is Team Canada’s wheelchair curling lead. Joseph, 60, is a dedicated athlete and remains focused on battling for top of the podium with her team.

Joseph was an alternate for the 2022 Beijing Paralympics, and now has a starting role for Team Canada in the mixed event. Her journey to the sport began in 2006 when she had an opportunity to try it out. Joseph played wheelchair basketball for many years but it was starting to wear out her shoulders but so she wanted to stay in a competitive sport. She instantly fell in love with it.

Coincidentally, 2006 was also the same year that wheelchair curling was officially added to the Paralympics program, and Canada won the inaugural Olympic gold medal.

“It was great to see that,” Joseph told CBC Sports. “It was quite something to watch and think, ‘Oh! I want that someday!’ and I was never going to get there with wheelchair basketball. But I knew that the Paralympic Games was golden.”

Joseph is part of a five-person, mixed gender wheelchair curling team consisting of Gilbert (Gil) Dash, Ina Forrest, Jon Thurston and Mark Ideson who will compete in Cortina.

Canada has medalled at every Winter Paralympics since. Joseph knows this history and wants to continue winning. Her sharp strategy and love for the sport are part of her arsenal along with her perspective.

Joseph told me that one of the things she loves about wheelchair curling is that it is both an individual and a team sport. She has two shots that she must throw and that result has an impact on the team overall. She loves learning and perfecting her skill.

“The other part I really love about it is that we learn from every shot,” Joseph said. “So what I learned about how I threw the shot and what the result was, I could then speed up the line to my teammates, and they take that information and use it for their shot. So it’s very much a supportive system that takes this all the way through, from lead to the last so I really like that, and I get quite engaged in that part of the game.”

Joseph and her teammate Forrest are two of the oldest members of the Canadian Paralympic delegation. Joseph speaks so highly of all her teammates but there is a particular way that Forrest, 63, is someone who Joseph looks to as a source of strength and creativity in play.

“Ina is going into her fifth Paralympic Games,” she said. “Holy cow! How much can you learn from her? And so I watch her, and I try to soak up as much as I can from her. So I don’t know that I have one Paralympic athlete that is inspirational, but this group of four other athletes just drives me and makes me want to be excellent at this position and in this role as a teammate.”

Life experience

When I asked her about what it’s like having teammates on the Paralympic squad that could be her children, she jokingly said, “Hey! Easy!” and we both had a chuckle. Joseph told me her lived experience helps her in her sport, and said that she navigates through many types of situations.

“I was injured [in a train accident in France] when I was 18 years old, so now I’ve been a wheelchair user for over 40 years,” she explained.

“And that experience of dealing with barriers and dealing with people’s attitudes, and some of the things that you normally would get as a person with a disability come to the fore a little bit.”

Joseph and I spoke about the longevity of sport and how it’s so impactful to have women active and competing firecely at many ages. The age range of Canada’s Paralympic Team is from 18-63.

To have such an age range is something Canadians should take note of and aspire to. It isn’t a typical sport from which you are excluded or grow out of. Joseph told me she envisions herself at the next Paralympics as well. This directly challenges potential tropes about someone being “too old” for sport.

The Stittsville, Ont., native’s jovial personality blends with her teammates perfectly. She told me that she tends to be the loudest, and that she frequently makes the most jokes.

“I’m a little bit more demonstrative with my expressions, and I tend to swear like a trucker,” she said. “I try to jab people more than others do.”

Her humour is remarkable but it aligns perfectly with her ability to see the moment and then play according to what is needed by the team. She can then switch and bring levity if needed.

Wheelchair curling requires an intensity and laser focus, and Joseph couples that with her ability to be free to laugh in her whole self. She is surrounded by teammates whom she sees as witty and appreciative of her humour — not uncommon in the curling space.

Joseph says that being part of the curling community was really special. Goldline Curling made a wrap for the wheelchair curling teams for their drawing sticks. The black carbon fibre sticks got a makeover from the decal that was designed. It is the same art made by Anishnaabe/Cree artist Shelby Gagnon.

They asked Gagnon to design something for their drawing sticks. Gagnon was the artist who designed kits with Indigenous art for Team Canada at the Olympics. Those same kits will be worn by the Paralympic team with the addition of the drawing stick wraps.

“The details in it are unbelievable. I’m so stoked about this kit,” Joseph said.

The team will be enveloped by their family and friends, something that was not possible for Joseph during the 2022 Paralympics due to COVID-19 restrictions. In a way, the full experience will be a first for Joseph and Thurston — also his second Paralympics.

“We have 40 people coming with all our friends and family. Personally, I have nine friends and family that are coming. And I think Mark, our skip, has 13, and Ina about five or six who are coming,” she said.

“So it’s, it’s going to be a really nice group of people all coming together and to celebrate Team Canada, not just in curling, but just generally, Team Canada in Milano-Cortina. So we’re really looking forward to that.”

While Joseph is focused on her event and winning, she is also excited about having some gelato in the beautiful town of Cortina. Canada is looking for gold in this event.

With the experience and wisdom of this team then marinated in laughter and teamwork, Joseph’s goal is solid as a rock.