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.

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.