Curling community mourns Darryl Neighbour, 2010 Paralympic gold medallist who died at 78

The Story

Darryl Neighbour, a Paralympic gold medallist and wheelchair curling pioneer, has died at 78 after being struck by a vehicle while he crossed the street in Richmond in August.

Neighbour’s family and friends remembered him during a celebration of life on Saturday, where his niece, Starleigh Genovese, said he “took something that was a tragedy and could have devastated his life, and perhaps turned it into the best part of his life.”

Before his national and international curling success, Neighbour fell in love with the sport by playing in a two-lane rink his father built in small-town Alberta, learning to throw rocks from the age of five or six, according to his sister Linda Neighbour.

Linda Neighbour said a workplace accident took the use of his legs, an event that led him to become one of Canada’s greatest wheelchair curlers.

Neighbour’s crowning achievement was winning gold at the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver.

Vince Miele, who met Neighbour at the Marpole Curling Club in the early 2000s, described him as someone who helped grow the sport and made curling clubs more inclusive, noting that many clubs were not wheelchair accessible when wheelchair curling became established.

Miele said Neighbour worked with the Rick Hansen Foundation to secure funding and personally oversaw the construction of an elevator, supporting access for new players and the social side of curling.

At the celebration of life, Linda Neighbour said her brother “took what could have been so devastating, ran it to the nth degree, and was still able to be humble about it. A true legend can be humble, and I believe my brother was.”