Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | Canadian |
Citizenship | Canada |
Born | April 20, 1961 |
Height | 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) |
Weight | 76 kg (168 lb) |
Medal record |
Dennis Thiessen (born April 20, 1961, in Crystal City, Manitoba) is a Canadian wheelchair curler who was part of the winning team in wheelchair curling for Canada at the 2014 Winter Paralympics. He played on the winning Canadian team at the 2013 World Wheelchair Curling Championship. His disability is that at seventeen he lost his leg. [1] He is the only Manitoban on the team and lives in Sanford, Manitoba. [2]
He was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 2019. [3]
Thiessen was born in Crystal City, Manitoba on April 20, 1961, and now resides in Sanford, Manitoba. He is married and has 2 children. In 1978, when Thiessen was 17 years old, he had an accident in his family's farm and had lost his leg. He was suggested to give wheelchair curling a try in 2005. [4] He said that he was really inspired by another Manitoban winter sportsperson Cindy Klassen and that she was "the ultimate professional and a great representative of Canada". [5] He had also started the organization "Manitoba Farmers with Disabilities". [5]
At the age of 52, Thiessen has competed in his first Paralympic Games, he made the tryout two years before in 2012. After seeing the team, he said that "It was just an unbelievable feeling," [6] Canada won the spot at the top of the podium by beating Russia 8–3. "It was an emotional high" explained Thiessen who has just won his first Paralympic Medal. [7]
Curling Canada is a sanctioning body for the sport of curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes Canada's national championships in the sport. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the two previous sanctioning bodies, Curl Canada (men's) and the Canadian Ladies' Curling Association (women's).
Chantal Petitclerc is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec.
The 2014 Winter Paralympics, the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), held in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 16 March 2014. 45 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) participated in the Games, which marked the first time Russia ever hosted the Paralympics. The Games featured 72 medal events in five sports, and saw the debut of snowboarding at the Winter Paralympics.
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Michelle Stilwell is a Canadian athlete and politician. She represented Canada at four Summer Paralympic Games, as well as the 2015 Parapan American Games. She competed in wheelchair basketball before becoming a wheelchair racer, and is the only female Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two separate summer sport events.
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Canada competed at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China which took place between 4–13 March 2022.