Paralympic super G races see medal winners from across the globe

Paralympic alpine ski racing continued today (March 19) in Whistler with men’s and women’s super G races in all three categories. Skiers from across the world took home hardware on the Games penultimate day of racing.

Austrian Claudia Loesch took the gold in the women’s sitting category with a time of 1:33.89 head of American Alana Nichols with the silver and a time of 1:36.68 for her third medal of these Games. German Anna Schaffelhuber claimed the bronze with a one minute 38.25-second run. Americans Laurie Stephens the defending gold medalist from Torino and Stephani Victor finished 4,5.

“If I could go back, I would ski some of the tougher stuff more aggressively,” Nichols said. “That’s what Claudia did well today. She skied a tighter line. That’s just how it goes.”

Nichols won gold in both the downhill and giant slalom events earlier this week.

Canada’s Laren Woolstencroft won the standing category by more than five seconds to claim her fourth consecutive gold medal of these Games. Italian Melania Corradini earned the silver medal while German Andrea Rothfuss took the bronze. Allison Jones (ninth) was the only American to compete.
 
“This is definitely more then I expected. I knew I had it in me because I have medaled in all these events in World Cup or in the Games before,” said Woolstencroft, who works and an electric engineer. “The biggest thing is to repeat it day after day with the hectic schedule that we have with five races in six days, especially after losing the first couple of days.”

She now holds the record for most medals for a Canadian Winter Paralympian.

Slovakian Henrieta Farkasova was the fastest woman visually impaired racer. Canadian Viviane Forest along with her guide Lindsay Debou took silver for their fourth medal at these Games followed by the Czech Republic’s Anna Kuliskova with the bronze. American Danelle Umsted missed the podium by a little more than two and a half seconds in fourth place. Teammate Caitlin Sarubbi finished eight.

“It has been an amazing experience so far in Whistler, the crowd is awesome, all the crew helping out makes these Games just even more special,” said Forest. “I am really happy with my race today even if I ran out of gas a little bit today. We had to dig deep and Lindsay helped me all the way through the end of the course.”

The Japanese controlled the men’s sitting category as Akira Kano raced to the gold with a 1:19.98 run. Teammates Taiki Morii and Takeshi Suzuki finished 3,5. German Martin Braxenthaler finished second while American Chris Devlin-Young finished fourth in the tight race with a time of 1:21.00.

German Gerd Schonfelder secured the gold in the men’s standing category with a time of 1:20.11. French racer Vincent Gauthier-Manuel was just more than a second back with the silver medal. Austrian Hubert Mandl had a time of 1:21.97 to earn the bronze medal.

Frenchman Nicolas Berejny won the men’s visually impaired race only .16 seconds ahead of silver medalist, Slovakian Jakub Kako. Fellow Slovakian Miroslav Haraus was a second back to earn a bronze medal. American Mark Bathum finished fourth with a time of 1:23.05.

“I expected better things from everybody today,” said U.S. adaptive head coach Ray Watkins. “When you get on a track that’s this hard and smooth then everyone has the same chance. Tomorrow’s another day. We go forward. We keep trying and we’ll see.”

Paralympic alpine racing concludes tomorrow with men’s and women’s super combined races in all three categories. 

For complete results click here.

Images of Woolstencroft and Kano by Gepa