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.
BEIJING – The United States had two big wins on the final day of competition at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games on Sunday to make it a good finish for the team.
The Americans’ dominance of ice hockey continued with a fourth consecutive gold medal. The USA beat Canada 4-0 in a final the country dominated from the opening minutes.
Canada had moments where the side looked threatening. Still, their North American rivals always held a measure of control.
Early in the first period Liam Hickey rushed the American net, but Jen Lee was at his best to keep the Canadian off the score sheet. That allowed him to launch a counter which gave Declan Farmer a chance to score, which he took.
That would begin the flood of goals as the United States continued its dominance of the sport for over a decade. Canada will be concerned about the looming Chinese threat; the hosts finished third here and are aiming to be in the top tier with the North Americans.
Pedersen wins fourth gold
Jesper Pedersen (NOR) sealed being the most successful athlete in Beijing as he won four gold medals. He clinched his fourth in Sunday’s men’s sitting slalom.
It was a dominant performance from Pedersen, who claimed the win six seconds ahead of silver medal winner Niels de Langen (NED).
“I exceeded all expectations. Of course, this is what I’ve been dreaming of for the last couple of years. Still, to be able to have such good events here and in Hafjell [2022 World Championships] as well, it’s been just amazing for me,” said 22-year-old Pedersen. “I’m just so happy, and now I’m ready to go home and take a well-deserved rest.”
Arthur Bauchet (FRA) was only one gold medal behind the Norwegian as he won his third gold medal in the men’s standing.
One more gold medal behind was Italian Giacomo Bertagnolli (guide: Andrea Ravelli), who will go into his home Olympic Games in four years as a great success. He won the men’s vision impaired in an entertaining race.
Relay gold makes Masters most decorated woman in Beijing
Oksana Masters (USA) clinched her third gold medal of these Games as she was part of the victorious United States cross country mixed relay team.
With Daniel Cnossen and Sydney Peters, Masters handed off to Jake Adicoff (guide: Sam Wood) for the final leg behind the Chinese. Adicoff powered away and claimed the gold medal 26 seconds ahead of the hosts to cap it for the Americans.
Ukraine had one more gold medal to win, and it was an emotional win in the open relay. Grygorii Vochysnkyi led the team of Vasyl Kravchuk, Dmytro Suiarko and Anatolii Kovalevskyi (guide: Oleksandr Mukshyn).
Needing to come from fourth place, Kovalevskyi and Mukshyn pushed and overhauled the three in front of them to take an emotional gold medal.
“This win today means Ukraine is like five fingers (one fist),” Vovchynskyi said. “It means Ukraine, the whole country, is like one person. Today our whole winning team is like one guy. Everyone supports each other, like in Ukraine now. This is like a union of all the Ukrainian people here. On this podium will be all of Ukraine together.”
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 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.
Jezte Plat after winning the Hawaii Ironman (Photo: IPC)
MONACO – The biggest award in para sport has seen nominees named as the Laureus World Sports Awards announced its shortlist of six athletes for the World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award. Marcel Hug, Yui Kamiji, Oksana Masters, Bibian Mentel-Spee, Jezte Plat, and Markus Rehm have all been named nominees for the award which will be handed out in Monaco on February 27th.
Marcel Hug had another phenomenal season in 2017, winning three world championships at the World Para Athletics Championship in London in the 800m, 1,500m, and 5,000m. On top of his work on the track he was a star on the road winning the Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, and New York Marathons.
Yui Kamiji has climbed to the top of the women’s singles wheelchair tennis rankings after a phenomenal year in 2017. In 2017 the Japanese tennis player won 14 singles titles out of a possible 18 through the tour, winning three of the four Grand Slams, winning in Australia, France and the US. She also impressed in doubles, sitting number two in the world winning eight titles and two Grand Slams.
Oksana Masters moved to a new sport in 2017, for the third time in her career moving from rowing to cycling to now Nordic skiing. Masters won four world titles in her first year as an elite athlete at the sport along with winning four gold and a bronze in the World Cup. Masters finished her season ranked number one in cross-country and third in biathlon.
Bibian Mentel-Spee had a phenomenal come back year in 2017, after cancer treatment took her away from competing in 2016. Mentel-Spee has long led snowboarding, fighting for its inclusion at the Paralympic Games she continued to impress in 2017.
Being an elite athlete at one sport wasn’t enough for Dutchman Jetze Plat who was at the top of both cycling and triathlon. Plat won the Individual Time Trial and Road Race at the UCI Para Cycling World Championships and then went and won the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final just 12 days later. Nine days after that win Plat won the Berlin Marathon before claiming the para-athlete title at the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon in October, leading from start to finish.
German Markus Rehm continued to impress in Para Athletics claiming two world titles in very different disciplines in London. Rehm dominated the field in the men’s long jump T44 with an eight meter leap, more than one meter clear of the rest of the field before winning the 4x100m T42-46 with his German team mates.
Para Sports 