In his prime, Jim Armstrong was known as a player who combined the touch of a surgeon with powerful sweeping. A guy who could draw the button at will and rip apart corn brooms as if they were feather dusters. The big, burly dentist from Richmond, B.C., used that talent for six Brier appearances, including a runner-up finish in 1987 while playing third for Bernie Sparkes. Known as the Gentle Giant, Armstrong was a favourite of fans and fellow players alike. While his size and competitive streak could intimidate an opponent in a crucial game, his laugh could set them at ease once the match was over. Now, 18 years removed from his last Brier appearance, Armstrong has returned to the top levels of the sport, but in a much different manner. After what can only be described as a journey through hell, he is set to skip the Canadian wheelchair curling team at the Paralympics in March.
"It's been a twist, that's for sure," Armstrong said. "Quite the ride." While he always suffered with bad knees, Armstrong's condition became severe following a 2003 car accident. Not only did it end his curling career, but also his business as he was forced to close his dental practice. "For four or five years I had no interest and no need to go into a curling rink," he said. "It left a huge hole in my life." Not only did he miss the competition but also the social aspects that are the lifeblood of a curler's life. No friends to joke with, no beers after the game, no trekking off to bonspiels. It was all gone. Instead he was learning how to live life from a wheelchair. It wasn't until a former teammate, Gerry Peckham, now the Canadian Curling Association's director of high performance, suggested he try wheelchair curling that Armstrong found some happiness again. While reluctant to give it a go at first, that all changed when he got to the rink. "The first time I got on the ice, I was hooked," he said. "I loved it right away. "For the first two or three months, I threw more rocks than I did in the last three years I was playing competitively. I turned into a rink rat again."
Wheelchair curling was still in its infancy, first being played in Canada in 2002. And in some aspects, it was quite different from the game Armstrong played as an able-bodied person. Players deliver the stones from their chairs using a delivery stick and there is no sweeping. With his wealth of experience, Armstrong was a catch for the national program, but as skip, he did have to alter his game for his teammates. "In the early going I made it too hard a game," he said. "I told them it's like the layers on an onion. We'll peel the layers back until we find our level of ability and add them back on as we improve." Armstrong skipped the Canadian team of third Darryl Neighbour of Richmond, second Ina Forrest of Armstrong, B.C., and lead Sonja Gaudet of Vernon, B.C., to its first world championship last year. That same team, along with alternate Bruno Yizek of Calgary and coach Joe Rea of Prince George, B.C., will wear the Canadian colours at the Paralympics.
While getting back to curling has been like an elixir for Armstrong, it hasn't all been rosy. In September, he was involved in another serious car accident, suffering a serious shoulder injury, which hasn't rehabbed as he hoped. On top of that, Armstrong also recently lost his wife to breast cancer. "We knew she was going, just not when," he said. "She said in the summer that she wanted two more things. She wanted one more Christmas and to see me at the Paralympics. I know she'll be on my shoulder the whole way." With that as incentive, Armstrong hopes to win gold in curling. But as with many things in his life these days, the event will be all new. "I have no sense of the size or scope of the Paralympics," he said. "Even when we won the world championships last year, I couldn't really say how big it was until we came off the ice and they asked us to pee in the bottle. Then you know you're on the world stage." Being on the curling stage is a comfortable spot for Armstrong all over again.
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Sonja Gaudet, Chris Sobkowicz, Ina Forrest
Darryl Neighbour, Jim Armstrong and Coach Joe Rea
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