The crowd that jammed into Kindred Custom Snowboards in Merville erupted in celebration late Sunday when their friend and workmate, Tyler Turner of Campbell River, won sa国际传媒’s first Winter Paralympics snowboarding gold medal, taking the men’s SB-LL1 snowboard-cross event at Beijing 2022.
Turner’s Island supporters know what it took for him to get there. A Calgary native who moved to the Island in 2005 for the outdoor lifestyle, Turner had to have both legs amputated below the knees after a skydiving accident at Woodwynn Farm in Central Saanich in 2017.
“We all know the amazing amount of hard work he has put in — there were a lot of proud people in that room watching and cheering,” said lifelong friend Evan Fair. “The idea of failure just doesn’t exist with Tyler.”
Turner, 33, texted the room soon after his gold-medal victory, saying he was still processing the win: “It hasn’t quite set in yet. I don’t think it will until tomorrow. It’s pretty amazing. I’m super grateful for this whole experience. It’s incredible.”
It has not been an easy ride to the top of the podium, physically or mentally. But while the doors closed on some previous activities, others opened in Para sports.
“I would say the passions I pursue are what keeps me alive, really,” Turner said in a statement to the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “Without it, depression is a deep dark hole, and that’s what helped me climb out of the dark days and it’s what keeps me motivated to get up in the morning and push through the pain and a lot of the challenges.”
Those challenges were ample following his accident, but Turner proved bad landings are what you make of them.
“It’s all about just having fun and putting a smile on your face. And for me, this is the kind of stuff that puts a smile on my face,” he said. “It’s a struggle. Every day it’s pretty tough for me to get up and put my legs on and get out the door. The sports I pursue and the passions I have are what get me out the door every day.”
These days, Turner para-surfs at Tofino and has even returned to skydiving as an instructor.
“Tyler has the thrill-seeker’s mentality of wanting to do it all, regardless of the challenges,” said Fair, owner-operator of Kindred Snowboards, one of Turner’s main sponsors.
Turner’s was another triumph in this cycle for athletes from Mount Washington, following Comox freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe’s silver medal last month in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Turner also follows in the path of Island Paralympics legends, including multi-medallists Richard Peter in wheelchair basketball, Michelle Stilwell in wheelchair track and Stephanie Dixon and Michael Edgson in swimming from the Summer Games, and skier Lauren Woolstencroft in the Winter Games.
It’s a tradition that continued with Island track athlete Nate Riech’s gold medal in the 1,500 metres last summer in the Tokyo Paralympics.
Each had their stories of mental and physical fortitude in overcoming life-altering challenges — Peter was run over by a school bus in Duncan, Stilwell fell while playing as a teen, Riech was hit in the head by an errant golf ball, Dixon was born without a leg, Woolstencroft was born without an arm and both legs below the knees, and Edgson is blind.
Turner, too, found salvation and release in Para sports, and tried everything from wheelchair lacrosse to basketball.
“Right after my accident, I was limited in my ability, but wheelchair sports was my first way to taste competition again,” he said. “I tried them all. But I knew what I really wanted to do was stand up and snowboard again. I wasn’t going to stop until I got there. There were a lot of issues, a lot of pain, but I knew right away I was going to be able to ride at a high level.”
That he did, on prosthetics. His rise was dizzying, from two gold medals and a bronze at the 2021 world championships in Lillehammer, Norway, to his golden Paralympics breakthrough in Beijing.
“Tyler is an example of what is possible with determination,” said Fair.
