Family and friends gathered at Calgary's Centre Street Church on Thursday to honour and remember twin brothers who were killed in an incident on the sliding track at Canada Olympic Park on Saturday.
Hundreds of people attended the public memorial for Evan and Jordan Caldwell, who were killed on February 6 as a result of a sled crash on the bobsleigh run at WinSport's Canada Olympic Park.
The Caldwells were with a group of six friends, meeting after hours at the recreation facility in southwest Calgary, taking personal sleds onto the bobsled track and slid down.
The boys struck a metal divider between the bobsled and luge sections of the track, with the Caldwells both suffering fatal injuries as a result.
A number of the rest of their party also suffered serious injuries.
Friends of the boys described them as 'rockstars' and straight-A students who both had a bright future ahead of them.
“He always cracked jokes to lighten the school mood kinda thing, but he touched everyone he met,” said Brittany Harle, a friend of Evan Caldwell.
“When I found out, I actually just like choked and I saw their Facebooks and I just didn’t know what to say,” said Elijah Woods, another one of Evan’s friends. “I was kind of speechless.”
The outpouring of grief and condolences has been widespread across social media and memorials are in place at WinSport as well as Westmount Charter and Ernest Manning High School, the institutions the boys attended classes.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in attendance and sat in the front row. Harper knew the boys through volunteer work they had done for him.
The 17-year-old twins were remembered as brothers who loved their church, sports and to play jokes on one another.
"Two of the biggest pieces of my heart are gone," said Katie, the boys' sister.
Evan and Jordan were laid to rest earlier in the day at a private service.
