Big day for North Americans at Paralympics

Thursday (March 18) was a good day for the North Americans at the Paralympic Games as the women and men tested the Whistler downhill track.

Canadian Viviane Forest captured the gold in the visually impaired category with American Danelle Umstead earning bronze. Henrieta Farkasova got the silver.  In the sitting category the U.S. swept the top of the podium with Alana Nichols capturing gold and teammate Laurie Stephens for silver. Austrian Claudia Loesch won bronze. Canadian Lauren Woolstencroft won the women’s standing category as well, her third gold medal of the Games. The men were not as successful, but Mark Bathum brought home silver for the U.S. in their visually impaired class.

“My goal was to win at least one gold,” said Forest who finished today in 1:27.51. “I’m even more pleased because we got it for the downhill. It was such a difficult course here in Whistler so I’m very happy.”

Adding to the challenge was the fact there was only one downhill training run held due to challenging weather conditions.

“I like the downhill and all the speed events,” added Umstead. “I seem to stay up better when I’m going a lot faster. It was a little firmer than I expected and a lot faster. I didn’t fall today, woo hoo!”

Nichols, who also won gold in Tuesday’s giant slalom race, won with a time of 1:23.31. Despite not feeling well, Stephens came in at 1:28.26 to claim the silver and Claudia Loesch of Austria won the bronze (1:29.89).

“I love downhill,” said Nichols. “It’s my favorite event and I wanted to throw a solid run. I did what I came to do. It’s fulfilling and exciting for me to have executed it. Any athlete can relate to that – you want to do well, your personal best, and I did that today.”

A self-described “adrenaline junkie,” Nichols, like most of her U.S. teammates, loves the speed events. “I’m a little crazy. I think that’s what makes me a good speed skier. You have to be able to hold your upper body really strong and hold your position. It’s such an adrenaline rush,” she said.

Stephens is the defending gold medalist from Torino. “I definitely could have skied a little better,” Stephens said after the race. “The course is bumpy and I just didn’t have it today. I’m happy with the results and excited for my teammate.”

Woolstencroft, now golden in the downhill, slalom and giant slalom, said the distance between downhill training and race day did present a challenge.

“It’s been eight days since the downhill training so we needed to dust off that memory of the course,” she said. “We have been skiing technical events in slushier conditions which is a lot slower. So that was definitely a different feeling going out there with all that speed.”

“It affects people in different ways,” said Woolstencroft of the pressure she feels to be successful. “I just try to take that pressure to my advantage. Everyone was cheering for us because we are Canadians and we are competing for the national team. So it is great to come down and hear all those people cheering for you, regardless of what you do.”

Bathum missed out on the top spot by less than a half second. Taking gold in a time of 1:18.23 was Spain’s Jon Santacana Maiztegui, just 0.40 ahead of Bathum’s time of 1:18.63. Claiming the bronze were Gerd Gradwohl and his guide Karl-Heinz Vachenaur of Germany (1:20.40).

Out of a field of 12, the USA duo was in first with six sets of skiers yet to run the course. They had to wait until the eventual gold medalists, the second to last skiers to race after being yellow flagged and getting a rerun, came down.

“After awhile you know who is able to make the podium,” commented Bathum. “I think there was one racer shortly after us, then one who got a rerun, who we knew could ski well enough to win. Unfortunately one of them did. But they’re very good skiers and very nice guys.”

In the men’s sitting classification, Switzerland’s Christoph Kunz won gold with a time of 1:18.19. Japan’s Taiki Morii won silver at 1:18.63 and Akira Kano, also of Japan, won bronze with a time of 1:19.19. Of the 28 competitors in Thursday’s race, eight did not finish.

The three competing sitting U.S. men, heavily favored to do well in today’s event, were among the victims of today’s crashes. Both Joe Tompkins and Tyler Walker fell towards the top of the course and did not finish, while Chris Devlin-Young fell near the finish line and recovered to finish the race, but not in enough time put himself in medal contention.

Men’s Standing gold went to Gerd Schonfelder, silver to Marty Mayberry and bronze to Michael Brugger

Forest and guide Lindsay Debou photo by GEPA
Nichols photo by GEPA