Ina Forrest continues drive for five (medals) for Milano Cortina 2026

LONDON, Ont. – There are moments that remain etched in the minds of high-performance athletes forever. And it is not always the ones you think. Sure, the golden victories, the winning shots, and the usual firsts most often define the athlete to the public.

But for the athlete at a personal level, it can be that specific moment in time when they stood on the precipice of abandoning sport altogether. Then realizing many years later what a different life they would have led without pursuing such a unique journey.

For wheelchair curler Ina Forrest, that day when her sport career hung in the balance still marks her to this day.

And yet here we are at the end of 2025, and Forrest is on track to compete at her fifth Paralympic Winter Games this March in Milano Cortina. She has reached the podium in her four previous Games appearances with her Team Canada teammates: gold in 2010 and 2014 and bronze in 2018 and 2022.

In addition, she has competed at a whopping 14 world championships, every one since 2007, compiling three gold and three silver. In October, she received yet another honour being inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.

At 63, Forrest remains firmly entrenched on the national team. To think she once pondered, though briefly, whether she had a future in the sport.

Back in 2005, Forrest and her B.C. team lost in the national final by the narrowest margins and with it, a spot at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. Wheelchair curling was making its official debut as a sport at the Games in Torino and Canada would go on to win its first of three consecutive gold.

‘’I was devastated,” said Forrest. “I’d been working so hard to make that team and it came down to the very last rock.

“I thought it was the end of my curling career. I just didn’t foresee that I could spend another five years of training and competing to make the 2010 team.”

But that downer didn’t actually last very long. She still got to experience international competition at an event in Ontario soon afterwards and discovered a community which shared her values and her love of wheelchair curling.

Forrest was named the top lead of that tournament and her belief – that she had briefly lost – returned. This time it was permanent. Not even the highs and lows that high performance athletes experience would ever disrupt her internal drive for excellence in her sport.

A year later, in 2007, she was on the national team for good, and she has no plans to stop anytime soon.

‘’I still get that special feeling when I put on the Team Canada jacket,’’ she said. ‘’That never goes away.’’