Kimberley’s Kalle Eriksson to represent Canada at Paralympic Winter Games

Published 12:07 pm Thursday, February 26, 2026

Kimberley’s Kalle Eriksson and his guide Sierra Smith from Ottawa, Ont. will represent Canada at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, which take place March 6-14.

“It’s an honour, I’m super proud to be carrying the maple leaf with me and carrying all the Canadians and everyone that stands with me along for the journey,” Eriksson told The Bulletin. “It’s honestly just an honour, I think that that’s the word that sums it up the best.

“Knowing I’m coming from an amazing country and then an amazing community too, nestled in the Rocky Mountains. Knowing that I have Kimberley standing with me no matter what happens is fantastic.”

Eriksson has been a para-athlete since 2022, after he started losing his vision from a rare instance of solar retinopathy while he was skiing on a glacier in Sweden. He described the first year after the diagnosis as a “darker space” of his life, and he was unsure where he would end up.

“A lot of the goals and ambitions I had originally set out for myself in life maybe didn’t seem as realistic now. And so now that I got into this whole ski racing thing and then Para-sport, it’s given me a lot of purpose and like I said, I never expected this in my life and now that I’m here it’s crazy.

“It’s almost like, it’s something that I wish never had happened to my eyes, but at the same time I’m also grateful for it to be given all these new opportunities that I’ve got. I say to a lot of people, I see a lot more of the world than I would have with all of my vision. It’s cool to look at it that way.”

Anyone who’s tried or observed ski racing will know how extreme and risky the sport can be. To do it with six per cent vision is a whole other story, requiring an incredible amount of courage and mental fortitude.

And Eriksson knows full well how rough it can be. He’s been in Europe since January 8, competing in some World Cup races, which he said “didn’t necessarily go as planned.”

“I dinged myself up good the first training day back after Christmas and was out for about two weeks without skiing and then finally was able to do a World Cup race and didn’t get the results that I was hoping for, but that’s alright, that’s how it goes after not skiing for a while,” he said.

His guide Sierra Smith, who he’s competed with for years now, also hurt herself during some World Cup races, so it’s been a trying last couple of months.

They took 10 days off, but have been back to training for the past two weeks, doing slalom, speed and technical training to dial in before the games.

Prior to this, Eriksson also underwent knee surgery two summers ago, and then had a shoulder injury this past fall while in Chile.

“Then my most recent injury that I had was some bone bruising after I straddled a gate and got twisted around pretty good,” he said. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as I’d originally thought.”

Smith got into Para racing after a leg injury halted her elite-level ski racing career in 2017. Together they have won 10 medals on the World Cup circuit, including two wins and two silver medals.

Currently he and Smith are staying at a resort in a town located about an hour and a half away from Cortina, training and getting ready for the games. He said the facilities they’ve been training on have been exceptional, with staff doing a great job setting up conditions that are as close as possible to what they anticipate at Cortina.

“It’s been pretty perfect too the last couple of days, because it’s been pretty warm in Europe right now, we’re getting temperatures of 10 C, some days even 12, and so the snow is pretty soft, that spring kind of slush, which we’ve been expecting to be having in Cortina,” Eriksson said.

“In that sense of things I think that we’re simulating as close as we can get to what it will be like there as it gets. The people over here are always awesome, we’re being taken care of very well at the hotels we’re staying at and the resorts love having us. It’s been amazing.”

The duo will have downhill training at Cortina on March 6, 7 and 8, with their first downhill race on March 9.

Eriksson’s mom and sister will be coming to Italy to support him, and Smith has quite a few family and friends that will be there as well.

“I’ve seen some support on Facebook and it’s so exciting,” Eriksson said. “Four years ago if you would have asked me if I was expecting this I probably would have said no, so to be in this situation now is crazy and I’m looking forward to it. I’m really excited, I’m not setting any expectations for myself right now, just going to go there and enjoy the moment and whatever happens happens.”

After the games, Eriksson will head home to Kimberley and a week later will compete in the Canadian Para-Alpine National Championships on the famous Dreadnaught ski run, his home track.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “It will be nice to come home after the games and then get to race on the hometown hill, I can’t wait honestly, it’s really exciting.

“Just a huge thank you to everyone in Kimberley who’s supported me on this journey. I’m very proud to be coming from the community.”

Stay up to date with Eriksson and Smith’s journey at paralympic.ca