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Nordic skier Natalie Wilkie earned her third medal in three events at the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games, taking bronze in Tuesday’s women’s standing cross-country sprint. The 25-year-old from Salmon Arm, B.C., who won a gold and a silver in biathlon over the weekend, now owns 10 Paralympic medals.
Norway’s Vilde Nilsen won Tuesday’s race, avenging her painful loss in the sprint event at the 2022 Games in Beijing, where Wilkie passed her just before the finish line to steal the gold. Nilsen left no doubt this time, crossing four seconds ahead of American Sydney Peterson and almost nine seconds ahead of Wilkie.
Wilkie’s bronze brought Canada’s total to eight medals (one gold, three silver, four bronze) through Day 4.
Other key Canadian results
Nordic skier Mark Arendz remains at 13 career Paralympic medals after the 36-year-old finished sixth in the men’s standing cross-country sprint. Six-time Paralympic medallist Collin Cameron was 11th in the men’s sitting event.
Alpine skier Kalle Eriksson and his guide Sierra Smith just missed their third medal of the Games. They finished fourth in the men’s vision-impaired combined event, a mere 0.05 seconds behind the bronze-winning tandem from Austria. Eriksson and Smith took silver in the downhill on Saturday and bronze in the super-G on Monday.
Men’s sitting downhill bronze medallist Kurt Oatway failed to complete the first leg of the combined after also skiing off course in the super-G on Monday. “These Games need to be held a month earlier,” said Oatway, who was frustrated by the soft snow in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where temperatures reached 9 C on Tuesday.
Michaela Gosselin placed seventh in the women’s standing combined. Despite five top-seven finishes over the last two Paralympics, the 25-year-old is still looking for her first medal.
Canada’s Para hockey team completed a perfect preliminary round by defeating 2022 bronze medallist Czechia 4-1. The Canadians, who outscored their three Group B opponents by a combined 26-1, will face Group A runner-up China in the semifinals on Friday while the Czechs meet the defending champion United States, which went 3-0 in Group A. The U.S. has won four straight Paralympic golds, beating Canada in the last two finals.
Canada’s wheelchair curling team improved to 6-0 with a pair of big wins, defeating back-to-back Paralympic champion China 9-4 before topping 2022 silver medallist Sweden 6-5 to sit alone in first place. Canada won bronze at each of the past two Paralympics as well as last year’s world championship, where China captured gold for the third time in four tries.
Here’s more on Canada’s top performers from Day 4.
Canadians to watch Wednesday
Fans eager to watch Wilkie compete for her fourth medal of the Games, and 11th of her career, in the women’s standing cross-country 10-kilometre interval start, will be disappointed. Sitting out the event was discussed before the Games, Nordic Canada confirmed to CBC Sports, so Wilkie will receive an extra day to rest before Friday’s biathlon sprint pursuit.
Arendz competes in the men’s standing 10K at 6:35 a.m. ET. He took bronze in this distance at the 2018 Paralympics and last year’s world championships.
Cameron is in the men’s sitting 10 km at 5:10 a.m. ET. He finished fourth in the 10K at the 2022 Paralympics and took silver at the 2023 worlds.
Canada’s undefeated wheelchair curling team plays Slovakia at 3:05 p.m. ET. The round robin wraps up on Thursday with Canada facing South Korea and the United States.
How to watch
Along with daily afternoon and evening broadcasts on the CBC TV network, you can stream all of the action from the Milan-Cortina Games live and on demand exclusively on the free CBC Gem app. Gem is also available 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.
