Mollie Jepsen won Canada’s first medal at the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
Jepsen took gold in the women’s standing downhill, clocking one minute and 21.75 seconds. China’s Zhang Mengqiu won silver and Sweden’s Ebba Aarsjoe bronze.
Jepsen, who has won five medals in his Paralympic career, said the main challenge this time around was negotiating a course unfamiliar to him.
“Usually we go down the course a million times before competing, and this time was just my fourth run,” Jepsen said. I am amazed; I knew what I wanted to accomplish today, and I’m happy to have been able to give it my all on the track. »
The West Vancouver athlete had won four medals at the Pyeongchang Games.
She won gold in super combined, silver in slalom and bronze in downhill and giant slalom in 2018.
Marcoux earns the money
Shortly after Jepsen’s victory, Canada added a second medal to its collection in alpine skiing.
Ontarian Mac Marcoux, of Sault-Sainte-Marie, took silver in the men’s downhill for the visually impaired.
Austria’s Johannes Aigner won gold in 1:13.45, edging Marcoux by a few tenths of a second at 1:13.81 and France’s Hyacinthe Deleplace who took bronze in 1:14.10.
Meanwhile, Mark Arendz of Hartsville, PEI kicked off his grueling Paralympic program by capturing bronze in the 6km biathlon.
Arendz earned her ninth career Paralympic medal. The 32-year-old Maple Leaf representative shrugged off the gusts that swept the course and caused many headaches at the Zhangjaikou National Biathlon Center shooting range, en route to a cumulative time of 17 minutes and 13.6 seconds.
The Ukrainian Grygorii Vovchynskyi triumphed, ahead of the German Marco Maier.
The Ukrainian delegation arrived in the Chinese capital after a long trip of four days, attributable in particular to the invasion of the country by Russia.