Mark
Ideson

As skip of Team Canada since 2018, Mark Ideson has maintained the country among the world’s powerhouses as the sport has surged to unprecedented heights worldwide. Under Ideson, Canada has won bronze at the last two Paralympic Games and added three silver and a bronze at the world championships.

His first assignment as Team Canada’s skip was at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang leading the nation to a bronze medal. After a heartbreaking loss to China in the semifinals, which the Chinese won on the last rock of the game, the Ideson-led Canadians came back strong to claim victory against South Korea in the bronze medal game.

At the 2022 Games in Beijing, Canada with Ideson at the helm defeated China in the preliminary round but were thwarted again in the semis by its nemesis. Undeterred Canada beat Slovakia for a second straight bronze.

It should be noted that Ideson throws lead during the matches with sharpshooter Jon Thurston throwing last. At the 2022 Games, four of the 11 skips were not the last shooter.

Ideson made his Games debut four years earlier as he helped Canada to the gold medal in at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games only four years after he took up the sport.

Ideson’s journey into wheelchair sports began in 2007 when a helicopter he was piloting crashed into a field near Cambridge, Ont., leaving him with multiple fractures in his legs, pelvis, sternum, ribs, nose and neck, resulting in a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia.

As an able-bodied athlete, Ideson was involved with a variety of sports, but in his new life he began to miss the sense of community and belonging. He says he was inspired by watching an interview with charismatic Olympic skeleton champion Jon Montgomery during the 2010 Olympic Games. When Montgomery spoke of taking up a sport that he could excel at and represent Canada on the world stage, Ideson knew that he too needed to find his sport.

A friend had been asking him to try wheelchair curling, and at first, he said no because he originally didn’t want to try any sport he had played prior to his injury, where he could compare his abilities. Luckily, he decided to give it a try.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
At the Paralympic Winter Games he won gold in 2014 and bronze in 2018 and 2022… Competed at 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 World Championships… Competed at the 2025 mixed doubles world championships

PERSONAL
Ideson is married to Lara and they have two children… Ideson studied environmental science at the University of Western Ontario, where he met his wife Lara…

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

2025 World Mixed Doubles Championships – 6th

2024 World Championships – 3rd

2023 World Championships – 2nd

2022 Paralympic Winter Games – 3rd

2021 World Championships – 5th

2020 World Championships – 2nd

2019 World Championships – 10th

2018 Paralympic Games – 3rd

2017 World Championships – 5th

2016 World Championships – 7th

2015 World Championships – 6th

2014 Paralympic Winter Games – 1st

2013 World Championships – 1st