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With Day 3 of the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games winding down, Canada is already up to seven medals — one gold, three silver and three bronze.
Let’s get you up to speed on what happened over the weekend and today, and look ahead to the top Canadians to watch tomorrow.
Nordic skier Natalie Wilkie captured Canada’s first (and still only) gold medal of the Games on Sunday, winning the women’s standing 12.5-kilometre biathlon event. Wilkie also earned a silver in the 7.5 km biathlon sprint on Saturday and now owns nine Paralympic medals at the age of 25.
Mark Arendz won his 13th career Paralympic medal, taking silver in the men’s standing 12.5km biathlon. The 36-year-old bounced back from a fifth-place finish in the sprint race on Saturday.
Alpine skier Kalle Ericsson and his guide Sierra Smith took silver in the men’s vision-impaired downhill on Saturday for Canada’s first medal of the Games. Today, they added a bronze in the super-G.
Defending men’s snowboard cross SB-LL1 champion Tyler Turner crashed during his four-man final on Sunday but was awarded the bronze after the judges ruled that the third-place finisher caused the collision.
42-year-old alpine skier Kurt Oatway took bronze in the men’s sitting downhill on Saturday for his second career Paralympic medal. The 2018 super-G champion missed the 2022 Games after a serious crash at the world championships that year.
Defending women’s standing downhill champion Mollie Jepsen finished fourth, just missing her seventh career Olympic medal. She was later ruled out for the remainder of the Games due to a knee injury.
Canada’s Para hockey team opened with an 8-0 rout of Slovakia on Saturday and routed Japan 14-0 today. The Canadians lost the last two Paralympic gold-medal games to the United States.
Canada’s mixed wheelchair curling team defeated Italy, Great Britain and Norway over the weekend before routing Latvia 11-1 this morning to improve their record to 4-0. Against Norway, Canada’s Jon Thurston made one of the best shots you’ll ever see.
What a shot made by Jon Thurston in the 6th end for Canada👏🇨🇦 <a href=”https://t.co/X3w9Zj4pQ0″>pic.twitter.com/X3w9Zj4pQ0</a>
Wilkie and Arendz will put down their biathlon rifles as cross-country skiing competition begins with the sprint events in all categories. At the 2022 Beijing Paralympics, Wilkie won the 1.5 km women’s standing race by overtaking Norway’s Vilde Nilsen just before the finish line, and they’re expected to battle for the gold again.
Canada’s Brittany Hudak could also contend after finishing fourth last time. The final goes at 8:38 a.m. ET, followed immediately by the men’s standing final. Arendz tied for the bronze in 2018 before skipping the sprint in Beijing.
Six-time Paralympic medallist Collin Cameron will try to advance to the men’s sitting cross-country sprint final at 8:29 a.m. ET. The 27-year-old took bronze in this event in 2022 but finished 11th and seventh in his two biathlon races over the weekend.
Eriksson and Smith go for their third medal of the Games in alpine skiing’s combined event, which consists of two runs. Racing begins at 4 a.m. ET with the super-G leg in each category, followed by the closing slalom leg at 8 a.m. ET. Eriksson and Smith’s group (men’s vision impaired) is fourth on the docket in both sessions.
Oatway will try for his second medal of the Games in the men’s sitting category of the combined. In the women’s standing group, Michaela Gosselin has a shot at her first Paralympic medal after placing fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in the four events she finished in 2022 (she was disqualified in the combined).
Canada’s Para hockey team wraps up group play against Czechia at 12:05 p.m. ET. The Czechs beat China for the bronze at last year’s world championship in Buffalo after losing in the semifinals to Canada, which fell 6-1 to the U.S. in the gold-medal game. The top two teams in each group advance to the semis on Friday.
Canada’s wheelchair curling team puts its unblemished record on the line in a pair of tough games, facing defending-champion China (4-0) at 4:35 a.m. ET and 2022 silver medallist Sweden (4-1) at 1:35 p.m. ET. The preliminary stage runs through Thursday, and the top four teams advance to the medal rounds, starting Friday.
Along with daily broadcasts on the CBC TV network, which begin Saturday at noon ET, you can stream all of the action from the Milano-Cortina Games live and on demand exclusively on the free CBC Gem app. You can also access Gem on your desktop web browser.
For a full listing of what’s on each day, see the CBC Paralympics streaming and broadcast schedule.
You can also visit CBC’s Milan-Cortina Paralympics website for the latest stories, schedules, in-depth features and on-demand highlights.
Here’s more on all the ways you can follow the Games with CBC.
