How a skydiving routine helped calm Canadian Tyler Turner's nerves en route to Paralympic gold

Canada's Tyler Turner was feeling a little jittery ahead of his first-ever Paralympic snowboard cross big final.

Naturally, he turned his mind to skydiving. 

"It took me completely away from the stress of racing because that can get to you," Turner said. 

"[Coach Greg Picard] and I were planning skydives right in the start gate for 20 minutes before. … Talk about making a dive plan and plan the jump, jump the plan."

The plan paid off. Turner won the gold medal, five years after a skydiving crash cost him both legs, left him in a coma for five days and caused brain, spine and pelvis injuries.

WATCH | Turner races to gold medal:

The 33-year-old from Campbell River, B.C., is a skydiving instructor who said the sport "is my life in a lot of ways."

The skydiving mentality was detailed. For the big final, Turner and Picard — himself a former skydiver — planned as thought it was a big jump with extra altitude and an oxygen tank. They discussed what would happen at 5,000 and 8,000 feet, and when to pull the parachute.

"I fell into a routine and I didn't go up there and stress about, 'Holy crap, I'm about to drop into the big finals of a Paralympic race. I can potentially win a medal. I can potentially be on the podium.' 

"Like, that's dangerous," Turner said.

From surfing to snowboarding

The Paralympics were the first time in Turner's career, which also includes gold at the most recent world championships, that he went with the skydiving strategy.

His previous mindset would be to pretend like he was on a surfboard. Turner also competed at the 2020 Para surfing world championships.

"With my brain injury, I really struggle to remember a lot of things, down to my friend's names sometimes that I've known for a long time. It's really frustrating," Turner said. 

"But what's wild is that I can remember every single moment on a wave of some of the best waves I've ridden over the last 15, 20 years and the feeling. I could tell you where every speck of water is," said Turner, who also dabbles in mountain biking, skateboarding, wingsuit flying and other extreme sports.

'Pucks in deep'

And, of course, Turner grew up playing hockey. And so that was on his mind both during the races and after.

As he went through international media following his win, he told each outlet that his mindset through heats was the age-old hockey adage "pucks in deep."

Turner's friend gave him the idea while training together in Alberta in February.

"He said, 'Man, if you ever get to doing interviews with other countries or something, you got to say something Canadian.' And I said, 'Well, I grew up playing hockey. And it's always about pucks deep, pucks off the glass, don't pass it up the middle,'" Turner said.

"And when I started taking the first interview with the [International Paralympic Committee] or something, it came out and I said, 'Yeah, stick to the game plan, get pucks deep, get pucks to the net.' And I almost giggled to myself."

DeJong's life-changing decision

Given Canada's Olympic snowboarding success, including six medals in Beijing, it is somewhat surprising to hear the nation had never reached the Para snowboard podium until this week. The sport was introduced to the Paralympics in 2014.

Turner and DeJong changed that quickly.

For DeJong, the 32-year-old from Biggar, Sask., the silver medal was a surprise. A crash between two riders behind her in the big final paved the way for DeJong to slide to silver.

"When I realized I was in second place coming out of turn one, it was shocking. And I was just thinking, 'Keep it together. You're actually in the medal running now.' And it was just crazy," she said.

WATCH | DeJong rides to snowboard-cross silver:

DeJong's left foot was amputated at three years old after she was born without growth plates or an ankle joint. If the foot wasn't amputated, DeJong wouldn't have been able to run or play sports.

She joked that it was an easy decision for her to make at that age. It was relatively easy for her parents too.

"My older brother had a life-threatening cancer and they thought they were going to lose him, so when they had a child that was just going to lose a limb, it wasn't really this huge decision for them," she said.

Nearly three decades later, the life-changing decision to allow sports into her life was confirmed, in a way.

"It just shows that the sky is the limit and that nothing can stop us. We find different ways to do things and we persevere and we can be super successful in sport," she said.

Indeed, for Canada's first Paralympic snowboard medallists, "the sky is the limit" works as both a mindset and a metaphor.