Team Canada won five medals on Friday in the sports of biathlon, wheelchair curling, snowboarding and alpine skiing at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing. With the medals, Canada now has 21 overall (seven gold medals, four silver medals and 10 bronze medals). They are behind China at 47 medals and Ukraine at 25 medals.
In alpine skiing, Mollie Jepsen of West Vancouver, British Columbia won the silver medal in the women’s giant slalom standing event with a time of 2:00.95. Mengqiu Zhang of China won the gold medal with a time of 1:55.12. Andrea Rothfuss of Germany won the bronze medal with a time of 2:01.91. Jepsen, who won the gold medal in the women’s downhill standing event, reached the podium in the women’s giant slalom standing event by 1.63 seconds. Marie Bochet of France finished in fourth place with a time of 2:02.58.
In biathlon, Mark Arendz of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island won the silver medal in the men’s 12.5 kilometre individual standing event with a time of 40 minutes and 13 seconds. Benjamin Daviet of France won the gold medal with a time of 37:58.9. Gregorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine won the bronze medal with a time of 42 minutes and 26 seconds. Arendz reached the podium by two minutes, 39.9 seconds over Gaoqun Wu of China, who had a fourth place time of 42:52.9.
Brittany Hudak of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan won a second medal for Canada in biathlon. She placed third in the women’s 12.5 kilometre individual standing event with a time of 49:03.4. Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine won the gold medal with a time of 47 minutes and 22 seconds. Zhiqing Zhao of China won the silver medal with a time of 48 minutes, 6.3 seconds. Hudak earned a medal by 9.5 seconds over Iryna Bui of the Ukraine, who had a time of 49:12.9.
In snowboarding, Tyler Turner of Campbell River, British Columbia won the bronze medal in the men’s banked slalom division. Zhongwei Wu of China won gold and Chris Vos of the Netherlands won silver. In wheelchair curling, Canada won the bronze medal after losing 9-5 to China in the semifinals, and then beating Slovakia 8-3 in the bronze medal game. It was a fantastic double takeout by Jon Thurston of Dunsford, Ontario, that helped Team Canada pick up four points in the eighth end in the win over Slovakia.
Finally in para ice hockey, Canada reached the gold medal game against the United States following a 11-0 win over South Korea. Tyler McGregor of Forest, Ontario led Canada in scoring with four goals and two assists for six points.
