TOBLACH, Italy — After cancelled events in Poland last week the Nordic Skiing system finally got underway this weekend in Toblach.
The United States came away with four wins in the 10km classical events. Jake Adicoff (Guide: Jake Brown) won the men’s vision impaired double, finishing in a time of 30:37.9 in the time trial, just clear of Zebasitian Modin (SWE, Guide: Emil Joensson) who had a factored time of 30:53.4. Thursday’s finish was even closer, a one second win for Adicoff in the mass start, Modin just couldn’t close the gap.
The other US golds were won by a familiar face, Oksana Masters, finishing just 20 seconds clear of teammate Kendall Gretsch to win the women’s sitting races both days.
North America wasn’t done with medals in the 10km classical races there; CanadianMark Arendz claimed the men’s standing race finishing almost one minute ahead of his nearest rival. His was the only win that wasn’t repeated in the mass start race, swapping second place with Japanese skier Taiki Kawayoke.
His teammate Brittany Hudak medaled in the women’s standing interval start, finishing a distant second to Norwegian great Vilde Nilsen before finishing third in the mass-start which was again won by Nilsen.
The hosts had something to cheer about in the men’s sitting which was claimed by Giuseppe Romele who beat out Ukrainian Pavlo Bal twice. This race saw more medals the Canadians with Derek Zaplotinsky claiming bronze in both races.
Germany dominated the women’s vision impaired races with Linn Kazmaier (Guide: Florian Baumann) finishing well in front of her teammate Leonie Maria Walter (Guide: Christian Krasman) to win both races.
Sundays saw the event switch to freestyle after the sprit races were cancelled. It opened with another home gold for Romele to sweep the men’s sitting classification. This time it was Brazilian Cristian Westemaier Barrera who finished second, relegating Bal to bronze.
Masters also completed her sweep, again beating teammate Gretsch, by just five seconds, as the two set a marker for the rest of the field to try and catch next week in Martell.
The men’s standing saw a drastically different result on Sunday with German Marco Meier claiming gold with Arendz not starting the race. Serheii Romaniuk (UKR) finished in second just seven seconds back. Nilsen completed her sweep of the women’s standing events easily, more than a minute ahead of Ukrainian duo Oleksandra Kononova and Liudmyla Liashenko.
Adicoff completed his sweep of the men’s vision impaired races, putting the Americans top of the medal table with six. The German domination of the women’s standing was broken in the freestyle race when Simona Bubenickova (CZE) claimed the gold by seven seconds from Kazmaier.
Sailors in action in the men’s Hansa 303 classification (Photo: Isabel van Opzeeland/World Sailing)
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands —All but one para classification is led by European Sailors as the World Sailing Championships continued on Monday, but the battle is not over yet.
A win in the sixth race of the men’s Hansa 303 for Polish sailor Pitor Chichocki extended his lead from one point to three. With two wins in the last three races he sits top with seven points ahead of Japan’s Takumi Niwa who came third taking him to 10 points. With four races to go it’s still close enough that either of the pair could win but Chichocki will need to slip up.
Pitor Chichocki leads the men’s Hamsa 303 (Isabel van Opzeeland/World Sailing)
The only classification not led by a European is the women’s Hansa 303 which is led by American Betsy Alison with six points after six races. While Alison has been dominant, finishing first or second in all of her races that count, her race that doesn’t count was a disqualification after a starting line violation.
That opens the door for second placed Olga Gornas-Grudzien (POL) whose discarded score is 4. Any more mistakes from Alison will almost certainly open the door for Gornas-Grudzien. For Alison it’s been an astounding journey to lead this field having had a cancer diagnosis in 2021 which led to her having much of her hip removed in a hemipelvectomy.
Betsy Alison leads the women’s Hansa 303 (Isabel van Opzeeland/World Sailing)
Alison has long coached para-sailors and now finds herself competing against them for the first time.
“It’s kind of a very ironic thing that I spent nearly 25 years coaching Paralympic sailors, only to find myself on the flip side, doing what I’m doing now, being an athlete. It’s kind of a crazy situation.”
Betsy Alison before the regatta
It could be a history making moment for Alison as a win for her would make her the first person to win a sailing world championship in para and non-para events.
Heiko Kroger leads the open 2.4 meter (Isabel van Opzeeland/World Sailing)
With one race to go in the open 2.4 meter only an improbable collapse would stop German Heiko Kroger from winning the event. Kroger’s domination has him seven points clear with just two second-place finishes, one he has discarded. Race 10 would need Italian Davide Di Maria to win the race and Kroger to finish ninth for the German to not win the race.
The French pair Ange Margaron and Olivier Ducruix celebrate after a race win in the RS Venture Connect classification (Isabel van Opzeeland/World Sailing)
A similar story has unfolded in the RS Venture Connect event with the French pair of Ange Margaron and Olivier Ducruix all but world champions. Much like Kroger they have nine points after two second-place finishes, they are six points clear of Canadian pair John McRoberts and Scott Lutes who need to win and need the French to finish seventh.
ESPOT, Spain – The para alpine skiingWorld Championships moved to the combined races on Wednesday, with a broad swath of countries gaining gold medals.
Eva Aarsjoe (SWE) claimed the women’s standing event, dominating from the start. She claimed the win in the super-g backing up her win in that event on Tuesday. She then extended her lead, claiming gold by winning the slalom. She was the only skier in the classification to go under two minutes.
Chiara Mazzel (ITA) managed the same feat in the women’s visual impaired classification. She won the Super-G in a rapid 58.54. In the afternoon, she backed up to win the slalom and finish with a combined 1:59.95.
All three women’s classifications were won in sweeps, as Anna-Lena Forster (GER) easily won the women’s sitting event. She won her second gold medal of the meet, winning the combined gold by a margin of over 14 seconds.
Johannes Aigner (AUT) swept his classification after two close races. He claimed the super-g in 52.79 before backing up to win the slalom and the event by less than one second from Giacomo Bertagnolli.
Robin Cuche (SUI) won the men’s standing super-g to take a handy lead into the slalom. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to hold on. A blistering run from Arthur Bauchet of 53.15 in the slalom saw the Frenchman win the combined event. He finished over four seconds clear of Cuche, who just couldn’t hold on.
Jesper Pedersen (NOR) got quicker in the slalom after winning the super-g in the men’s sitting classification. He won the super-g in the morning in 54.4 before going even faster in the slalom, winning in 53.42. Despite those quick times, he was less than one second ahead of silver medalist Rene de Silvestro (ITA).
The world championship moves to giant slalom on Thursday before a rest day on Friday.
BAIE-COMEAU, Quebec, Canada – It was a day of very close finishes, with some needing a photo finish, as the world para-cycling championships wrapped up on Sunday.
France had the best of the final day, winning three gold medals. They finished first and second in the men’s C2 road race. Alexandre Leaute completed a double with a nine-second win over compatriot Florian Chapeau.
Kevin Le Cunff improved from his bronze in the time-trial to claim the men’s C5 road race. It took a photo finish to give him the gold medal after the top four all finished simultaneously. Another photo was needed in the women’s C5 with Marie Patouillet declared the winner narrowly ahead of Kerstin Brachtendorf (GER).
Dutch pair Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos celebrate winning gold. (Photo: Swpix/UCI)
The Netherlands claimed the top spot in the medal tally after winning the final event of the championships with Tristan Bangma winning the men’s B road race with his pilot Patrick Bos. It completed a stunning season for the pair, who have won every event they’ve competed in.
Ireland also had an impressive final day, claiming two gold medals. A photo finish gave Ronan Grimes the win in the men’s C4. It was the most extended wait for any of the photo finishes of the day and sparked big celebrations.
The podium from the women’s B road race (photo: swpix/UCI)
A big push on the final lap of the women’s B road race saw Katie-George Dunlevy claim gold with her pilot Eve McCrystal. That saw them overcome the British pair who beat them in the time trial.
It wasn’t all bad for British cyclists, with Finlay Graham claiming gold in the men’s C3 road race. A second gold was added by Frances Brown in the C1.
The most dominant performance of the day came in the men’s C1 when Spaniard Ricardo Ten Argiles won by five minutes.
German Maike Hausberger backed up from her time trial gold to win the women’s C5 road race. Japan picked up its first championship gold medal with the women’s C3 road race through Keiko Suguira in just two seconds. Samantha Bosco claimed gold for the USA in the women’s C4 road race, finishing three minutes clear.
PESCARA, Italy – Germany made history this weekend, becoming the first team to win the Women’s Blind Football European Championships in Pescara.
It was a two-match series in Italy between Germany and England. Germany won both matches by the same score, 4-0.
Thoya Kuster scored the historic first goal of the final, and from there, she never looked back. Kuster scored every other goal in the first match as the Germans cruised to the win in the first leg, leaving England plenty to do in the second match.
English Head Coach Lauren Asquith was still upbeat after the first match. “Some of them started to play football in August of 2021. This is a good chance to learn. We had a good improvement in the second half.”
Highlighting the difference in experience, the Germans dominated the second match again. Again, Kuster scored every goal, finishing the series with eight goals.
“The most successful player is Thoya because she’s been playing since she was 9 years old.” Said German Head Coach Wolf Schmidt after the match. “She plays in the Blind Football Bundesliga and with men.”
“Being the top scorer is an indescribable feeling,” said Kuster after getting her medal. “Because in the Bundesliga, I haven’t scored any goals, and we had a lot of work with the English defence, which was much better in Game 2, where they fought like hell! It was all about teamwork; we communicated well during the pitch.“
The venue will now turn over to the men, who have a bigger tournament on June 10th.
BEIJING – After shocking the world four years ago, China defended its curling title at Beijing 2022 with an impressive come from behind victory in the final.
The first end was a blank end, which gave China the hammer in the second, but the hosts could only manage a single. That would be the same fate that would befall Sweden in the third end.
The Ice Cube was silenced in the fourth end when Wang Haitao overhit his takeout, watching it roll out of the house. That allowed Sweden to steal a single as the stone that wasn’t taken out was just clipping the outside edge of the 12 foot.
OIS/Bob Martin
China came back, scoring four in the fifth to take the lead; the weight of the draws was perfect, despite Wang making his final draw too light to miss out on taking five.
With the hammer in the sixth, Sweden couldn’t make it count. Some great defensive play from China forced the Swedes to settle for a single.
That gave China the hammer in the penultimate end, which was ended by two mistakes from the final curlers. That handed China another three counters, and Sweden conceded defeat 8-3.
“Four years ago we didn’t have too much pressure, but today we were playing at home, so it just put us under a lot of pressure, but luckily, we made it.”
Wang Haitao
Aigner family keeps claiming medals
OIS/Joel Marklund
After winning two medals yesterday, the Aigner family from Austria did it again. It was a one-two finish in the women’s visual impaired slalom.
Veronika claimed gold again, guided by sister Elizabeth and was followed by Barbara. The latter went up to a silver medal with her guide Klara Sykora.
Ebba Aarsjoe (SWE) also won her second gold medal of these Games, returning from an injury in the giant slalom yesterday to win the women’s standing.
The other Paralympic Champion of the day was Anna-Lena Forster (GER), who successfully defended her title from PyeongChang, winning her second gold medal in Beijing 2022.
McKeever equals record
In his final Paralympic Games, Brian McKeever (CAN) equaled the record of Gerd Schoenfelder to become the most decorated male Winter Paralympian of all time. His third gold medal of these Games gave him his 16th overall to equal Schoenfelder’s mark.
“To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t mean a damn thing,” he said, laughing. “It’s never been about any of it. It has always been about enjoying the process, and I love representing the country. We love getting lost in the mountains, then come home after 10 hours slogging and suffering… then, look at the picture later and say, that was fun. If records happen to come, it will come. Trying to do what you know to do best is what mattered to me all through my career.”
With Graham Nishikawa guiding him, McKeever won gold in the men’s vision impaired middle distance cross country to get the record. On the final day of the games on Sunday, he could break the record in the team relays.
There was an upset in the men’s standing as Benjamin Daviet (FRA) couldn’t win his third gold of the games, stunned by Wang Chenyang (CHN). When the results came out, Wang only won the race by 1.4 seconds; it was a close finish.
China also took gold in the men’s sitting with Mao Zhongwu leading home Zeng Peng for a one-two for the hosts. Giuseppe Romele (ITA) joined the pair on the podium.
There was a third gold for China in the women’s sitting when Yang Hongqiong Yang relegated Oksana Masters (USA) to her third silver medal.
Ukraine’s stellar Paralympics continued in the women’s standing when Oleksandra Kononova won her first gold medal in 12 years.
“I feel super happy, and I dedicate this medal to my country, Kononova said. “I felt really proud of myself, about my country who raised me and gave me everything to perform here at such a high level. I thought about my family.”
15-year-old superstar Linn Kazmaier won her first Paralympic gold medal, completing the entire set as she won the women’s visual impaired with guide Florian Baumann.
China wins ice hockey bronze in Paralympic debut
It took just five years for China to go from having no para ice hockey team to having a Paralympic medal-winning squad.
China’s speed has been on display all tournament, and they were too quick for South Korea as the hosts cruised to a 4-0 win to claim bronze.
Wang Zhidong scored five goals for the tournament when he scored the opener before Shen Yifeng stole possession in the offensive third. He then rounded the goalie and was left with a simple finish to make it 2-0 early in the second period.
Shen would back up and wrap up the match after serving 14 penalty minutes. The Koreans left the net empty to chase the game leaving Shen with an open shot to all but seal him the goalscoring crown.
BEIJING – It was a perfect finish to the individual biathlon for Ukraine at Beijing 2022 with the team claiming three gold medals.
Ukraine won eight gold, nine silver and five bronze medals at these Paralympic Games all from individual biathlon to seal the best ever performance in the sport.
Friday’s success began with Liudmyla Liashenko who claimed her first individual title by winning the women’s standing. She dominated the race from start to finish and easily claimed her long-awaited gold medal.
“It was a really long wait for me to get this gold medal. I’ve been to a lot of trainings and won a lot of gold medals in World Cups and World Championships over the past seasons. I was sure that my gold was waiting for me at these Paralympic Games and I am really happy and proud to be a Paralympic champion.”
Liudmyla Liashenko
That win was followed up by a second gold for Oksana Shyshkova (guide: Andriy Marchenko) in the women’s vision impaired. She held off a rush at the death from German pair Linn Kazmier (guide: Florian Baumann) and Leonie Maria Walter (guide: Pirmin Strecker) to win the race.
It was a sweep of the vision impaired events for Ukraine as Oleksandr Kazik (guide: Serhii Kucheriavyi) claimed men’s gold medal ahead of teammate Vitalii Lukianenko (guide: Borys Babar). China continued its good Games as Shuang Yu (guide: Wang Guanyu) claimed bronze.
Photo: OIS/Chloe Knott
Benjamin Daviet (FRA) backed up from winning a gold medal earlier in the Games as he claimed the gold in the men’s standing. That saw another medal for Ukraine with Grygorii Vovchynskyi claiming the bronze medal, the pair were joined on the podium by Mark Arendz (CAN).
A perfectly paced race by Oksana Masters (USA) overcome her teammate Kendall Gretsch in the final 2.5km to claim gold in the women’s sitting. It was her second gold medal of the games with China adding another medal through Yilin Shan.
China got another gold medal in the men’s standing through Liu Mengtao who controlled the whole race. He was joined on the podium by a teammate as Zixu Liu came third, while silver was another one for Ukraine through Taras Rad.
Aiger family dominates alpine skiing
Austrian sisters, the Aigers, had a big day on the alpine skiing slopes taking home three medals in the women’s vision impaired giant slalom.
Veronika, guided by Elisabeth took home the gold medal while their sister Barbara claimed the bronze medal with her guide Klara Sykora.
Momoka Muraoka (JPN) claimed her third gold medal as she won the women’s standing yet again. A rapid second run, seven seconds faster than the rest of the field, saw her claim the gold medal. She led two Chinese athletes in Liu Sitong and Zhang Wenjing.
China managed one more gold in the alpine events with Zhang Mengqiu transitioning successfully from speed to technical events in the women’s sitting. She won both runs, pushing Mollie Jepsen (CAN) to second with Andrea Rothfuss (GER).
China continues to dominate snowboarding
Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock
The Chinese gold rush continued on the snowboarding slopes as the hosts claimed three gold medals in the banked snowboard slalom.
It was a sweep of the men’s lower limb classifications for China as Wu Zhongwei won the SB-LL1 and Sun Qi won the SB-LL2.
Wu was dominant in the SB-LL1 winning both runs to cruise to victory ahead of Chris Vos (NED) who recovered from his disappointing snowboard cross final. In third place was the snowboard cross champion, Tyler Turner (CAN).
Sun was measured to claim gold, stunning world champion Matti Suur Hamari (FIN). There was history on the lowest step of the podium as Ollie Hall won the first snowboard Paralympic medal for Great Britain.
Another one looking to make up for disappointment in snowboard cross was Maxime Montaggioni (FRA) in the men’s SB-UL. It was a tight race after one run with Ji Lijia (CHN) leading Montaggioni by 0.01 seconds. The second run was a bigger difference with Montaggioni winning by 0.46 to claim the gold medal.
Ji said: “That’s like a finger’s distance. It’s OK.”
Brenna Huckaby (USA) received vindication by winning gold in the women’s banked slalom SB-LL2. Usually a competitor in the higher impairment SB-LL1, Huckaby won a lawsuit to compete up in the lower impairment category. That proved very worth it as she came back from second place in the first run to power past the Chinese pair of Geng Yanhong and Li Tiantian.
2018 rematch set in ice hockey final
Two lopsided semifinals set up a rematch of the 2018 ice hockey final as Canada and the USA both managed 11-0 wins to advance.
Canada managed the result against South Korea while the USA was surprisingly emphatic against the previously undefeated Chinese.
The two North Americans will meet for the second time in this tournament in the final. The previous match was won by the USA 5-0.
The only other game of the day was the fifth-place playoff, which Italy won. The Italians beat the Czech Republic in a thriller, 4-3.
China and Sweden win curling semifinals
China will defend its curling title after backing up to win the semifinal over Canada, they will take on Sweden in the battle for gold after the surprise package continued its good results.
It was a comfortable win for China, getting past Canada 9-5, firmly showing that dominance of the sport has shifted east.
Sweden guaranteed its best finish with a thrilling 6-4 win over Slovakia. Trailing coming into the 6th end, Sweden knew it needed to work and picked up a point. The Swedes picked up a point in each of the last three ends to take the win.
That moved the two losers into the bronze medal game and Canada emerged victorious. A stunning take out from Jon Thurston with the final draw of the game saw Canada claim four points and an 8-3 win for its second straight bronze medal.
BEIJING – It was a diverse day on the cross country course but one country did especially well. The hosts managed two gold medals on a busy day at Beijing 2022.
China swept the two sitting events in the cross country sprint events. It was a perfect repeat of the long distance races with Zheng Peng winning the men’s and Yang Hongqiong claiming the women’s. That women’s race was especially tight with Oksana Masters (USA) finishing in second place by just 1.7 seconds.
“I’m not sure about any tactics, but because all the fans outside have been cheering for us, the rhythm they’ve been giving us is really great.”
Zheng Peng
Carina Edlinger (AUT) (guide: Josef Lorenz Lampl) was perhaps the star of the day as she won the women’s vision impaired race. After just missing the medals four years ago she focused on winning this event for the past four years but struggled at the world championships. She dominated the field, beating Oksana Shyshkova (UKR) by seven seconds.
Brian McKeever (CAN) (guide: Russell Kennedy) claimed his 14th gold medal to close in on the record. He won the men’s visual impaired race, edging out Jake Adicoff (USA) in a tight finish, the pair separated by 0.8 seconds.
“This is the race that is hardest for us to win. My least favourite race,” McKeever said. “I said yesterday that I think I would rather race a 220km in Sweden next month than do another sprint, but here we are. It was fun.”
Benjamin Daviet (FRA) won his first individual title in his third Paralympic Games as he won the men’s standing. The times set by the fastest racers were very quick with Daviet having to push hard to claim gold ahead of Marco Maier (GER) by just 1.3 seconds.
Three youngsters took the medals in the women’s standing. Natalie Wilkie (CAN) claimed her second gold of the games with a late push to overcome Vilde Nilsen (NOR).
Asian Sides Join North Americans in Ice Hockey Semis
China faced a tough test in ice hockey for the first time but came through with flying colors to advance to the semifinals. A quick game with a brace to Zhidong Wang saw China manage a 4-3 win over the Czech Republic. The difficulty will ramp up again in the next round when they take on defending champions, the USA.
The Czech Republic came back from 3-1 down to level the scores but Wang won the match with less than two minutes to play.
South Korea also won through to the semifinals with a comfortable 4-0 win over Italy. That set up a semifinal with Canada, which would be a historic win.
China goes top in Curling
Defending curling champions, China, are on top of the standings in curling following a 7-5 win over Slovakia and a 7-4 win over Norway. That allowed China to take advantage of a slip from Sweden who now shares the lead with China. Sweden also beat Norway, 8-6 but couldn’t repeat China’s result against Slovakia, falling to a 6-5 loss.
BEIJING – Ukraine managed two podium sweeps as the embattled nation continued its dominance in Biathlon keeping the team in second place in the Beijing 2022 medal tally.
Vitalii Lukianenko (guide: Borys Babar) backed up from his sprint gold medal to claim another in the men’s visually impaired middle-distance biathlon. Just like on Sunday he led two teammates onto the podium with Oleksandr Mukshyn claiming silver and Oleksandr Nikonovych bronze.
Iryna Bui continued her Paralympic progression finally breaking through for her first gold medal in the women’s sitting. She finished a frustrating fourth place four years ago. There were three Ukrainian flags raised at the medal ceremony as Oleksandra Kononova came in behind her and Liudmyla Liashenko repeated her third-place finish from four years ago.
Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock
There was another first biathlon gold as Leonie Maria Walter (GER) (guide: Pirmin Strecker) stunned Ukrainian Oksana Shyshkova (guide: Andriy Marchenko) in the women’s visually impaired. Dropping two shots cost Shyshkova who just ran out of course to close down Walter.
The women’s sitting saw an American one-two with the order reversed from the sprint race on Sunday. Kendell Gretsch was able to get past her teammate Oksana Masters and get the gold medal, relegating Masters to second.
China’s stunning home Games continued in the men’s standing when Liu Mengtao as his skiing proved enough to overcome missing three shots.
“My skiing was fine today, but the shots, not that good. I tried my best, so I am satisfied. I want the Chinese flag to rise to the highest tip. That’s where I got the motivation.”
Liu Mengtao
Mark Arendz (CAN) upgraded to gold after finishing third in the last two Paralympic Games. He used his perfect shooting to claim the win, pulling away from Grygorii Vovchynskyi (UKR) who claimed silver after missing a shot.
Canada secures passage to ice hockey semi-finals
Canada powered through to the ice hockey semi-finals with a comfortable 6-0 victory over South Korea in the final group stage match. James Dunn starred scoring a hattrick to give his team the ticket to skip the quarter-final.
There was a virtual qualifier in Group B as the Czech Republic played Slovakia with a win required to advance. The Czech Republic claimed passage to the quarters with a 3-0 win which also dragged Italy through to the knock-out stages.
The Italians will now play South Korea and the Czech Republic will play China for a shot at the medal rounds.
The USA and Canada, by finishing first and second in Group A advanced straight to the semifinals.
Sweden leads close field in curling
Sweden is top of the standings in curling following two wins on Tuesday beating Estonia 6-4 and Great Britain 6-4 as the competition reached the halfway stage.
Slovakia continued its impressive performance with two wins to jump to second, first defeating Slovakia 7-2 and then stunning the Canadians in a thriller 9-8. China joins Slovakia on second thanks to a comfortable 10-2 win over the United States.
Canada was pushed down to fourth with that loss, Norway jumped up to fourth with wins over Switzerland (8-5) and Latvia (8-6). The Latvian’s incredible debut was only knocked slightly by that loss keeping the Baltic side in fourth place.
BEIJING – It was an emotional moment on the biathlon field as Ukraine managed to sweep the men’s vision impaired sprint biathlon to open the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games.
Vitalii Lukianenko (guide: Borys Babar) took gold in his first Paralympic Games, leading home a pair of compatriots. Oleksandr Kazik (guide: Serhii Kucherriayvi) managed a stunning comeback. After missing a shot, he used his speed to claim silver. By comparison, clean shooting saw Dmytro Suiarko (guide: Oleksandr Nikonovych) claim bronze.
The good results for Ukraine continued, picking up two more gold medals. Oksana Shsyshkova (guide: Andriy Marchenko) finally got the gold medal that had been eluding her in the women’s vision impaired sprint biathlon.
“When I entered the start, all thoughts were only about my family, my relatives, everybody who is in Ukraine,” Shyshkova said. “My race, my victory, is dedicated to them.”
The men’s standing was claimed by Grigorii Vovchynski, who completed Ukraine’s haul of medals, putting his country on top of the medal tally at the end of the first day.
China wins more medals on day one than all Winter Paralympics combined
Zixu Liu racing in the men’s sitting Biathlon (Photo: OIS/Thomas Lovelock)
Coming into Beijing 2022, the hosts had only won one medal in the Winter Paralympic Games, but in one day, they lifted that total to eight.
Two of those were gold medals from the biathlon field as Zixu Liu and Yujie Guo; Liu claimed the men’s sitting title while Guo won the women’s standing.
Guo was joined on the podium by compatriot Zhiqing Zhao, the pair sandwiched by another Ukrainian, Liudmyla Liashenko.
The combination of countries was the same in Liu’s event, with Ukraine’s Taras Rad separating the Chinese pair as Mengtao Liu took bronze.
There was history in the only event not won by Ukraine or China. Oksana Masters became the first person to win a winter and summer Paralympic gold in the same 12 months since the two events were staged in different years. Masters made up for her error from four years ago and managed her first clean shoot of the season to claim the women’s sitting gold medal. She was joined on the podium by compatriot, and fellow Tokyo gold medalist, Kendell Gretsch. At the same time, China’s Yilin Shan won the silver medal.
“I owe a lot to my mom and then it is for Team Ukraine and Ukrainian people. It is as much for Team USA as it is for Ukraine. I’m so proud to be Ukrainian, to be American and represent both and that’s the power of sports that you can represent so much more than just one thing.”
Oksana Masters
Henrieta Farkasova continues domination
Henrieta Farkasova celebrates after her ski in the women’s visual impaired downhill
Undefeated in eight years, Henrieta Farkasova (SVK) (guide: Martin Motyka) showed little signs of stopping in Beijing. She claimed her 10th Paralympic gold medal in the women’s visual impaired downhill.
China claimed more medals, taking silver through Daqing Zhu (guide: Hanhan Yan), while Great Britain got off to a good start with Millie Knight (guide: Brett Wild) claiming bronze.
It was a diverse collection of gold medalists in the downhill, most notably in the men’s vision impaired which was won by 16-year-old Johannes Aiger (guide: Matteo Fleischmann) in the first downhill race the pair had ever completed. It was a close race as Aiger’s time was only 0.36 seconds clear of defending champion Mac Marcoux (CAN) (Guide: Tristan Rodgers).
“The feeling is indescribable. It was my first downhill race, and I am very happy. Unbelievable,” Aigner said. “We have never raced downhill before, just a few training days. I don’t think we realize what we have done at the moment,” Fleischmann concluded.
Women’s sitting saw two medals for Asia with gold to Japan‘s Momoka Muraoka, who stunned world champion Anna-Lena Forster (GER). China claimed yet another medal through Siton Liu’s bronze.
Three athletes claimed their first Paralympic gold medals. The most notable among them was Arthur Bauchet (FRA), who has come so close so often in the men’s standing. Another first-time Paralympic champion, Mollie Jepsen (CAN), claimed the women’s event.
The biggest shock of the day came in the men’s sitting when Corey Peters (NZL) stunned the world with an incredible time to claim the gold medal. Peters was nearly horizontal on parts of the course which allowed him to get fantastic speed to claim gold.
China’s banner day continues in ice hockey
Shen Yifeng scores his third goal for China
Expectations were high for the Chinese ice hockey team. After a stunning performance in the Division 2 World Championship, there were thoughts that China could deliver on the big stage. The hosts certainly lived up to that expectation with a dominant 7-0 win over fellow debutants Slovakia.
Shen Yifeng starred for the speedy Chinese team, scoring four goals and being all over the ice through the 45 minutes.
💥THE RECORD BREAKER💥
Declan Farmer scored once and assisted for 3⃣ more goals vs Canada 🇨🇦 to enter the record books.
The other two matches were also shutouts. In a replay of the 2018 gold medal match, the USA showed its strength beating regional rivals Canada 5-0. That would be the same scoreline in the other match as the Czech Republic beat Italy 5-0 on the back of a 3-0 first period.
Curling revenge for Canada
Canada in action in the first Curling session at Beijing 2022
After being stunned by China in the 2018 semi-final, there was excitement around the curling bonspiel opening match between Canada and China. This time Canada came through strongly and got a measure of revenge over the defending champions with a 7-3 win.
In the afternoon session, Canada would back that up, claiming an 8-4 win over Switzerland to put the team in a commanding position.
Norway won a thriller in the opening session, showing their medal credentials using a solid start to beat Great Britain 7-5. Great Britain would recover and manage a big win over the USA 10-6, completing a rough day for the Americans. They gave up too much early against Slovakia, who beat them 9-3 in the opening session.
After the first two ends, Sweden took a 4-0 lead and never looked back, claiming a 9-2 win over Switzerland.
There was little expectation for Latvia, barely able to play in the pandemic era, facing an experienced South Korean side. Still, the Baltic side showed up the form book. Latvia claimed a win in its Paralympic debut, beating the Koreans 8-4.
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