For his first Paralympic Games, the Austrian Johannes Aigner was crowned in giant, his second title after the descent, during a Thursday marked by the tributes of the Ukrainian delegation to their country ravaged by war. Small day for Canada, where the Canadian wheelchair team qualified for the playoffs.
At the age of 16, Johannes Aigner has currently won more than half of the medals of his delegation (7), with four including two titles.
Thursday, on the slopes of Yanqing, the young athlete was again crowned during the giant in the visually impaired category, ahead of the Italian Giacomo Bertagnolli and the Slovak Miroslav Haraus.
These first Games were a success for Aigner, for whom alpine skiing was a family affair. Her twin sister, Barbara, and her older sister Veronica, will participate in the giant slalom on Friday, again in the visually impaired category.
In the sitting category, Norwegian Jesper Pedersen also won his third gold medal in Beijing, while Finland’s Santeri Kiiveri won the standing event.
Canadian curlers in semi-finals
The Maple Leaf wheelchair curling representatives advanced to the semifinals from behind to beat Norway, completing the preliminary tournament with a 7-3 record and securing a spot in the quad of ace.
“I’m relieved that we made it through the preliminary round and got our spot in the semi-finals,” admitted Canadian captain Mark Ideson.
“It’s fantastic that it’s official,” added Ina Forrest. We will continue to play the same way, treating every pitch as an important pitch and always doing our best. We will not give up, and we will go all the way. »
Canada, trailing by three points with three ends to trade, scored two points to come within one of the Norwegians.
Then, a putt from Canadian Jon Thurston forced Norway to settle for just one in the seventh end. Canada was down two in the eighth end with the hammer.
The Canadians negotiated the end to perfection, while the Norwegians made a costly mistake, leaving them with three stones in the house and two more to play. Norwegian skip Jostein Stordahl attempted a support but left enough space for a well-executed outing by the Canadians to knock him out en route to victory.
Thurston got the outing and Canada scored three points to complete the comeback, 7-6.
Canada has completed its preliminary round, but due to Russia withdrawing for obvious reasons, some teams still have to negotiate two games.
China, Sweden and Canada are already guaranteed to participate in the qualifiers. The fourth and last pass will be distributed no earlier than Thursday evening.
In para-alpine skiing, Brian Rowland achieved the best Canadian result on the slopes by finishing 12th in the giant slalom in the sitting position. Alexis Guimond, bronze medalist in the super-G, as well as Logan Leach and his guide Julien Petit could not complete their respective events.
The Canadian skiers will negotiate the giant slalom on Friday.
Unable to return
Three days before the end of this thirteenth Paralympiad, the messages sent by the Ukrainians continue to rain in the Paralympic village, where a tribute ceremony was organized.
In front of a banner bearing the message “Peace for all”, Ukrainian athletes and staff members protested against the Russian invasion by raising their fists and observing a minute’s silence for the fallen soldiers.
Medals around his neck and tears in his eyes, sprint biathlete Grygorii Vovchynskyi condemned Russian airstrikes on a pediatric hospital and maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday.
“They are bombing our children and our women, I can’t believe it,” he lamented, calling for it to “stop now.”
Head coach Andriy Nesterenko, from Kharkiv (east), announced, like other members of the team, that it would be impossible for him to return home when a large part of the city was destroyed.
Silent Chinese TV
For his part, the President of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, Valeriy Sushkevych, urged the rest of the world not to turn their backs on his country: “If you are civilized, you must stop the war. »
Ukraine is currently third in the medal table, with 19 won including six titles.
A “journey” hailed by the president of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons, Thursday. It “is one of the most extraordinary stories ever lived in sport,” he told AFP.
Andrew Parsons added that he is still awaiting an explanation from the Chinese television channel CCTV after the apparent censorship of his anti-war speech during the opening almost a week ago.
“The 21st century is made for dialogue and diplomacy, not for war and hatred,” he said in particular in English.
During the CCTV retransmission, his words were muted and the presenter only offered a watered-down version as a Chinese translation.
“We are still waiting to have their position or their explanation,” he said. “Let’s wait to hear what they have to say. »