The Canadians bagged a total of 19 medals on home soil four years ago, including 10 golds.

Lauren Woolstencroft claimed five of those gold medals in Alpine skiing, but will not be appearing in Sochi following her retirement from competitive sport, while Vivian Forest also bowed out, leaving men's slalom sitting silver medallist Joshua Dueck as the only alpine skier in the squad with a podium finish from Vancouver.

Brian McKeever leads the Nordic skiing team as he goes in search of his eighth Paralympic gold medal.

McKeever will be appearing at his fourth Games and will be looking to cement his place as one of the all-time greats by building on his two golds from Salt Lake City 2002, two at Turin 2006 and a hat-trick of wins in Vancouver.

Colette Bourgonje will be chasing an 11th medal in what will be her 10th Paralympic Games.

Bourgonje competed at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Paralympics, winning four bronze medals, while she has three silver and three bronze medals from her Winter Paralympic appearances in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and last time out in Vancouver.

Paralympic veterans Chris Klebl and Mark Arendz will also add experience to the squad.

Leader of the pack Brian McKeever will be aiming to add to his seven Paralympic gold medals next month ©Getty Images



Experience is the order of the day too in terms of the wheelchair curling team as Canada aims to complete a hat-trick of Paralympic wins.

The team will consist of skip Jim Armstrong, vice-skip Dennis Thiessen, second Ina Forrest, lead Sonja Gaudet, and alternate Mark Ideson, along with coach Joe Rea and team leader Wendy Morgan.

Armstrong, Forrest, Gaudet, Rea and Morgan were all part of the team that won gold at Vancouver 2010, while Gaudet, Rea and Morgan also featured when the sport made its Paralympic debut at Turin 2006.

Thiessen and Ideson will be competing at their first Games in Sochi but were present at the 2013 World Championships held at the same Ice Cube Curling Centre in Sochi last February when an identical Canada squad also took the gold medal.

Ice sledge hockey coach Mike Mondin will lead a squad that contains a blend of youth and experience as his side look to cement their place as the top side around after winning the World Championships last year.

After failing to medal in Vancouver 2010, Canada will be determined to repeat their gold medal winning performance from Turin 2006 and will be led by veteran forwards Greg Westlake and Brad Bowden, while Anthony Gale, Tyler McGregor, Ben Delaney and Karl Ludwig will provide some youthful exuberance.

Former world champion Tyler Mosher will headline the snowboarding team as the sport makes its debut in the Paralympics and he will be joined by Ian Lockey, John Leslie and Michelle Salt.

"It is fantastic to head to Sochi as the Chef de Mission of one of the strongest Canadian Paralympic Teams at any Paralympic Games in our Winter history," said Ozzie Sawicki.

"After spending much of the lead up to the Games meeting with the sports in their training and competition settings, I know that our entire Canadian contingent is ready to take on the challenge to once again place in the top three nations in the gold medal count, as we did in Vancouver at our home Games in 2010."

The view a complete list of Team Canada athletes and coaches, click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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