Double reason to celebrate for Ina Forrest and Collinda Joseph on International Women’s Day

CORTINA, Italy – Collinda Joseph and Ina Forrest had two reasons to celebrate Sunday morning at the wheelchair curling venue at the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.

 Joseph and Forrest, Canada first and second shooters, both had strong games in a come- from-behind 5-4 victory over Great Britain. The Canadians bettered their record to 2-0 by scoring three in the eighth and final end.  Canada also won by one point Saturday night, 9-8 over Italy.

‘’Every shot mattered again today,’’ said Forrest, competing at her fifth Games and is also a Team Canada co-captain. ‘’We’re very good at playing the game right down to the last rock and that wins you a lot of games when you can keep that going.’’

Canada, also with skip Mark Ideson and third Jon Thurston, stole two in the fourth to tie the game 2-2. Ideson executed two hits to knock out threatening British stones. Undeterred the British stole one point in the sixth and seventh end to set up the dramatic finish.

Sunday is also International Women’s Day, and wheelchair curling is a mixed sport at the high-performance level.  Each team must have at least one woman on the squad. Canada, U.S., and Norway each have two and, Latvia three at these Games.

‘’I’ve always been proud to be on a mixed curling team where it is often equal representation,’’ said Forrest, from Spallumcheen, B.C. ‘’And now with the addition of mixed doubles at the Games it’s just going to bring even more opportunity for women in the sport.’’

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Joseph, at her second Games, doesn’t need to go far to find her role model in wheelchair curling.

‘’Well in this sport it is Ina Forrest, I love to model myself after her,’’ said Joseph, who also works as the Manager of Standards Development and Research with Accessibility Standards Canada in Ottawa. ‘’She inspires me with her tenacity, her commitment to the game and just wanting to get better.’’

Forrest says the Paralympic movement has played a big role for women with a disability

‘’Women with a disability can see there are lot of options out there,’’ she said. ‘’Sports is just one of them, that may not be as common for some. But at an event like this it’s good to see the strong women representation.’’

At these Games in Milano Cortina, there are 160 women athletes out of 616 competitors, which are both record numbers. At the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, there were 136 women. 

Both Forrest and Joseph are highly encouraging girls in Canada to give sport a try.

‘’You can learn a lot from sport,’’ said Joseph. ‘’It’s impacted my life not only as a competitor but also in my working and personal life. I see huge benefits from participating in sport.

‘’It’s important to not be shy and take a chance.’’