Canada won three gold medals on Monday at the Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, where China never ceases to amaze, as do the Ukrainians who, despite the war, won a new title.
Unsurprisingly, Canadian veteran Brian McKeever, 42, won the 20 km classic in cross-country skiing (visually impaired category).
“I’m always hungry,” he said after winning the 14th Paralympic gold medal of his career.
If these Games are for him his sixth and last, he still has two events (sprint and 10 km) to try to equal the record of the former German skier Gerd Schönfelder, who, with 16 gold medals, is the most successful Paralympic athlete in history.
Canadian cross-country skier Natalie Wilkie won the long distance event (standing category).
Finally, in snowboard cross (category LL1), Tyler Turner, a double leg amputee after a parachute jump accident four years ago, also won gold for Canada.
“You would think I lost my legs yesterday and snapped my fingers to get to the top step of the podium,” the 33-year-old athlete told AFP. “But it’s not as simple as that. »
Awesome China
China, unaccustomed to success in the Winter Paralympics, never ceases to impress: after eight medals on Saturday and eight on Sunday, it added nine more on Monday.
The men’s snowboard cross podium (UL category) was thus entirely Chinese, with the young Ji Lijia who brought his country its seventh title.
Among other performances by athletes from the host country on Monday, three medals in alpine skiing in the various women’s categories.
With 25 medals, including seven gold, China is far ahead in the standings.
A major performance, because before these Paralympics, the Asian giant had won only one medal: gold in curling at the Pyeongchang Games (2018).
“Our own battle is here”
The Ukrainians, accustomed to good results at each edition, particularly in cross-country skiing and biathlon, seem little disturbed, on the sporting level, by the war in their country.
Cross-country skier Oksana Shyshkova clinched yet another title for Ukraine, which sits second in the medal standings (eight, including four gold).
A feat, when we know that the Ukrainian delegation had only reached Beijing last Wednesday, two days before the opening of the Games, after a dangerous and exhausting journey by bus through Europe.
“With the situation in Ukraine, it’s very difficult to concentrate on the race and control your emotions. But we have to give the best of ourselves,” said Oksana Shyshkova.
“Our battle is here and we have to prove that Ukraine is strong. »
Among the French, the young Arthur Bauchet, 21, won a second gold medal by winning the super combined, after Saturday’s downhill.
His compatriot Cécile Hernandez, 47 and suffering from multiple sclerosis, won her first Paralympic title, in the snowboard cross event.