Mollie Jepsen of West Vancouver, British Columbia has won Canada’s first medal at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing. It just so happened to be gold.
On Friday evening in Canada (Saturday morning in China), Jepsen, who was born without three fingers, posted a time of 1:21.75 in the women’s alpine skiing downhill competition in the standing category. Menqiu Zhang of China won the silver medal with a time of 1:21.85. Ebba Arsjo of Sweden won the bronze medal with a time of 1:23.20. Jepsen earned a medal by 1.96 seconds over Andrea Rothfuss of Germany, who had a fourth place time of 1:23.71. For Jepsen, it was her second career Paralympic gold medal as she previously placed first in the women’s alpine skiing standing super combined event at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
In the men’s downhill for those who are visually impaired, Mac Marcoux of Haviland Bay, Ontario won the silver medal with a time of 1:13.81 for his sixth career Paralympic medal. Johannes Aigner of Austria won the gold medal with a time of 1:13.45. Hyacinthe Deleplace of France won the bronze medal with a time of 1:14.10. Marcoux won a silver medal by 2.2 seconds over Miroslav Haraus of Slovakia, who had a fourth place time of 1:16.01.
In the men’s 6km standing biathlon event, Marc Arendz of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, who has one arm, won the bronze medal with a time of 17:13.6. Grygorii Vovchynskyi of Ukraine won the gold medal with a time of 16:17.6. Marco Maier of Germany won the silver medal with a time of 17:03.4. Arendz reached the podium by 5.5 seconds over fourth place finisher Benjamin Daviet of France, who had a fourth place time of 17:19.1.
In wheelchair curling, Canada won their first two games by scores of 7-3 over China and 8-4 over Switzerland. In the Paralympic medal standings, Canada is in fourth place with four medals (one gold medal, one silver medal and one bronze medal). China leads with eight medals. Ukraine is second with seven medals, and Germany is third with four medals.
