My Paralympic View 3: Alessia
by mulgrave
Sunday, March 14
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- We went to wheelchair curling today
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- That’s me in front of the IPC look of the games outside the curling venue!
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- Canada won 10 – 1. The crazy fan from the Olympic hockey games was there – you can see his big flag in the picture.
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- While we were watching the US warm-up for the game a puck flew out into our area – I got to keep it!
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- The USA won the game 3 – 0. My mom thinks that the gold medal game will be between the USA and Canada – hmmm, I guess we will find out on Wed night!
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- Hudson the service dog
We went to wheelchair curling today. Upon arriving we saw Minister McNeil for the Olympics for BC and MLA for False Creek. My mom and dad already knew her but I was excited to meet her! I think she must have one of the best jobs in BC!
The event saw Canada vs Norway and USA vs Germany. Too bad Canada was on the other side of the arena. It was really interesting. I love curling, so I was eager to see the difference between Olympic and Paralympic curling. The first thing I noticed is that the teams have both men and women on them. The next thing I noticed is that there are no sweepers. The person throwing the stone has to really push it hard and accurately. The thrower has someone behind him holding his wheelchair so that it won’t move while he pushes the stone. It must take amazing arm strength to push it down to the house (bull’s eye). After the first round we left so that we could go see the Canada vs Sweden sledge hockey game.
When we finally got to the sledge hockey game, the game was tied 1 – 1 with 8 minutes to go in the first period.
The Canadians owned the game as you can see from this picture – they out shot Sweden by quite a lot!
Between the 2nd and 3rd periods we spoke with Greg Westlake’s parents. He already had a hat trick for the game and it was only 2/3′s done! We met them at the Opening Ceremony. They were so happy for their son!
My dad had to leave to go to Whistler but my mom and I stayed to watch the USA – Czech Republic game. While we were waiting we met some really nice people from West Vancouver – our home. Their daughter is partially paralyzed because of an illness called meningitis. She let us pet her service dog Hudson. Hudson has been her service dog for 7 years. She says that Hudson is the best service dog in the world! He knows 75 commands! They let me take a picture with him. He got to sit up in the stands because the noise of the pucks hitting the ice really bothered him.
The USA won the game 3 – 0. My mom thinks that the gold medal game will be between the USA and Canada – hmmm, I guess we will find out on Wed night!
I am sad that we can’t go to any other sledge hockey games. I have to go to school. Too bad school wasn’t closed for the Paralympics!
[All-star reporter and Mulgrave School Grade 5 student, Alessia, is reporting to Our Kids about her Paralympic experience. For an introduction to the story click here.]
Related posts:
- My Olympic View #5 – Alessia
- My Paralympic View 1: Alessia
- My Olympic View #4 – Alessia
- My Paralympic View 2: Alessia