Mark Ideson

Mark Ideson (born April 10, 1976, in Parry Sound, Ontario) is a Canadian wheelchair curler who competed in the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi and won gold. He is married and has two children. He now resides in London, Ontario. In 2007, the helicopter he was piloting crashed into a field near Cambridge, Ontario and he now lives with quadriplegia. He played hockey and golf before he was disabled.

Personal
Ideson is married and has two children, an 18-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, and a 15-year-old son, Myles. He went to the University of Western Ontario. He studied environmental Science there, where he met his future wife, Lara. He was also a former Mustangs Cheerleader. After graduating university, he became a helicopter pilot and was introduced to wheelchair curling in 2010 at the age of 33.

Accident
In 2007, during a maintenance flight, his helicopter crashed into a field near Cambridge, Ontario. He broke 29 bones during the process. 500 metres away, Daniel Hermann, an eight-year-old boy saw this and went to his mother to call 9-1-1. The ambulance arrived shortly after within 20 minutes. Ideson said "I had rehearsed for seven years what I was going to say to a kid that essentially saved my life. I could never really put it to words."