Weyburn product and para-snowboarder Curt Minard won his third straight national championship in the upper limb category, fresh off his appearance at the Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The national championships were held at Kelowna’s Big White ski resort on March 26, where Minard was able to culminate his season with the big win.
The course he raced on in Korea was one of the most competitive he’s been on all season, as it was very steep and fast, but the course at Big White was very fast and technical, and Minard felt very confident as he raced through it.
“On race day, it started to snow, but the crews at Big White are pretty good at getting it ready for racing,” said Minard.
He took the lead in all three heats of his race, and he didn’t fall in any of the races, enabling him to win all of his heats.
“I wanted a three-time national championship, and to me this was the icing on the cake after coming back from PyeongChang, after wiping out there,” said Minard.
He had top-eight finishes in two events at the Games, in the snowboardcross and banked slalom events.
His snowboard season came to an end with the nationals, and he will go back to making safety presentations where he will talk about his experiences surviving a major electrocution that caused him to lose a hand.
Looking ahead sports-wise, Minard will be training in the off-season with a view to renewing his hockey-playing as well, as he will be trying out for the standing amputee hockey team for the world championships to be held in Calgary. He was with Team Canada in 2012 when they won a gold medal in Finland.
His goal is to continue being a multi-sport athlete, and noted there will probably be around 60-70 athletes who will try out for the hockey team.
“I’m really thankful for the support from people back home in Weyburn. It’s really helped me this year. I couldn’t have done without their support,” said Minard.
