Weyburn product Curt Minard is happy with two top-eight finishes at the Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, and felt honoured to represent Canada at this international event.
Minard reached the quarterfinals in snowboardcross at the Paralympics on March 12, and was eliminated in the upper limb quarters by eventual silver medalist Manuel Pozzerle of Italy, leaving him with a sixth-place finish in his Paralympics debut.
He noted he was leading in the race when he fell, and feels that he had a good chance to end up on the podium had he been able to finish that race.
On Friday, he competed in the banked slalom race and ended in eighth place after being within hundredths of a second with other competitors.
“It was a great experience to be a part of the Paralympics, not only personally, but was really rewarding to see how other high-calibre athletes performed,” said Minard, adding he feels happy and content with his two top-eight finishes, particularly as he was the top Canadian, and top male Canadian, in the snowboarding events at PyeongChang.
“This was obviously the most challenging course we had all year,” he said, noting that speeds reached 70 km an hour in some of the corners as they whipped through the SBX course. “It had some pretty technical challenges.”
For the banked slalom race on Friday, Minard said there was a big temperature change as it went from 15 above zero the day before to around 3 above on Friday, making the course “pure ice”.
“I laid out a pretty solid first run and was sitting in fourth, but as the race progressed through the second and third runs, the times kept getting faster and faster,” he said, explaining he was clumped in with a group of athletes who were all within fractions of a second from each other.
“I won a bronze in the exact same location last year but on a slightly different course, so I think that win helped me with my self-confidence going into this race,” said Minard. “I raced every time with high energy and lots of confidence, and I just wanted to lay down the best run I could each time.”
He didn’t have a lot of time off in the week he was in PyeongChang, as his events were spread out over four days with lots of training in between, leaving him with only one day off where he went to the Coastal Cluster where the beach, the Curling Rink and skating venues were located. The result was he was not able to take in any of the other sporting events at the Paralympics.
There were concerts and activities going on around the Athletes Village every night, which Minard enjoyed seeing. “It was pretty neat to see the various examples of culture. That was definitely something I hadn’t experienced before,” he said.
He attributed the great experience also to the huge support that was behind him.
“It was really good to have my family there supporting me, and the unconditional support from everyone back home in Canada. That helped me to focus and realize some of my dreams. It was a very rewarding experience,” he said.
Minard is well-known as a motivational speaker as well as his performances as an athlete in standup amputee hockey as well as in snowboarding. He lived and worked in Weyburn prior to moving to B.C. in 2008 to work at a new job there.
Minard was electrocuted as he and a crew were working on a 25,000-volt overhead power line. His co-worker came into contact with an energized 14,400-volt line, and as he was nearby working on a grounded conductor, a current of 5 amps went through his body and exited through his hands, and began cooking his internal organs, heating them up to about 400 degrees Celsius. Normally, a current of 0.5 amps, or 50 milliamps, can kill a person. The electrocution caused him to lose his left hand while he had burns on his right one.
Through the quick response of onlookers, doctors and nurses at Invermere Hospital, and the STARS air ambulance, they were able to save his life, and he began on a long road to recovery, including dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Sports played a big part in that recovery, and as an amputee hockey player he won a gold medal with Team Canada in Finland in 2012, and then went on to get competitively into the sport of snowboarding. As a para-athlete, he has won the national championship two years in a row.
Minard will only have a short time to rest up and get over his jet lag before getting back to training in preparation for the SBX nationals at Big White on Monday, March 26. “This will be my third consecutive national title if I win,” he said.
