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2010 Paraympic News | March 17, 2010
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Lauren Woolstencroft of North Vancouver wins second gold medal
By M. Beamish
March 17, 2010
Whistler, BC — She arrived in Whistler as the boldest name on a short list of Canadian alpine and Nordic skiers expected to chase multiple medals, and so far Lauren Woolstencroft has lived up to her billing.
The adaptive skier from Calgary, who now resides in North Vancouver, won her second gold of the 2010 Paralympic Games -- and eighth medal for Canada -- in the women's giant slalom (standing) Wednesday at Whistler Creekside, and she's locked in for more, according to Italy's Melania Corradini.
"She's skiing so fast, she's skiing at home, and she knows this mountain so well," Corradini says. "I think she can win three gold medals more, yes."
Woolstencroft, 28, won't have to wait long for a crack at her third gold of the 2010 Games. Today's downhill immediately follows the giant slalom because of event re-scheduling.
This is her third Paralympic Games and Woolstencroft has seven career medals, five of them gold, with the promise of more.
"No, winning gold never gets old," she chuckled," especially when you're winning them at home. It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When I won my first one in Salt Lake City [2002] it was unexpected. There was a lot less pressure then, just on Paralympic athletes in general. Now that there's a lot more pressure, a lot more time and resources that go into our sport, it takes on a different meaning. We do train a lot more. We have a more serious program. To perform with that kind of pressure, eight years later . . . yeah, it's great. It never gets old for me. I'm super-happy that it's happened for two races in a row."
She still has a long way to go yet to catch Germany's Gerd Schonfelder on the career list, however. He won the 13th gold medal of his Paralympics Games career in the men's GS (standing). But then, Woolstencroft has 11 years on the German, who is 39 and competing in his sixth Winter Games for adaptive athletes.
"Gerd is certainly an icon on the circuit," she says. "His success, and his performance and his consistency, year after year, are just amazing for all of us to watch. I don't know if I can make it to 39. That means 11 more years. It's a really long time at this point. Am I an icon already? We'll let others be the judge of that."
Her career total of seven medals ties Woolstencroft with teammate Karolina Wisniewska, a Polish-born skier who grew up in Calgary, for the most alpine medals in Canadian Paralympic Games history. Wisniewska, 33, became the first adaptive skier to be inducted into Canada's Skiing Hall of Fame in Ottawa following her retirement. She returned to competition in 2007 for the chance to compete at Whistler.
"Lauren's obviously an amazing skier," says Wisniewska, who now calls Vancouver home. "She really knows how to let her skis run. She's not only talented, she's mentally strong as well. In the Paralympics, skiers are factored because of their disabilities [Woolstencroft was born missing two legs below the knee and her left arm below the elbow]. So she has all of those things going in her favour."
Wisniewska was third in the slalom behind Woolstencroft on Monday, giving her a total of four silvers and three bronze medals in her Paralympic Games career. She has never won gold, however.
"If it comes my way, I'm going to be thrilled," she says. "But I have to keep my expectations realistic. I'm just focusing on every race, every day, and doing the best that I can. My coaches seem to think I'm a downhiller. We'll see how that pans out. Anything can happen. It's ski racing. We've seen crazy weather, and all sorts of things. I've just got to keep skiing the way I have been."
Wisniewska missed her eighth Paralympic Games podium finish by 2.40 seconds, coming in fourth in the GS behind bronze medalist Petra Smarzova of Slovakia. Andrea Rothfuss of Germany took the silver, 7.57 seconds behind Woolstencroft, whose cumulative winning time over the two runs was two minutes, 34.3 seconds.
."Karolina was on the team years before I started," Woolstencroft says. "She was great when I first started out, showing me the ropes. For a while, it was just her and me in terms of girls on the team. We spent a huge amount of time around the Salt Lake era training and competing together. It's great to trade roles with her now, but I think she's having a pretty good week, too."
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Sweden halts USA curling win streak at 2010 Paralympic Games
Sitrin.com
March 17, 2010
Vancouver, BC — Sweden put the brakes on USA Paralympic Curling Team's win streak at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, as a strategy mistake by USA skip Augusto Perez gave way to a 6-4 loss at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.
Team USA is made up of Sitrin Stars athletes from the Utica Curling Club, which includes Jimmy Joseph of New Hartford.
Sweden's Jalle Jungnell rink, with Glenn Ikonen throwing last rocks the past three games, handed the Americans their second loss of the nine-game round robin. USA will be back in action Wednesday with games against Norway (3-3) and Japan (2-4).
With the loss, Perez (East Syracuse, N.Y.) and teammates Patrick McDonald (Orangevale, Calif.), James Pierce (North Syracuse, N.Y.) and Jacqui Kapinowski (Point Pleasant, N.J.) drop to 4-2 in the standings - one game back from front-runner Canada (5-1).
"We played a really good game. I think it could have gone either way. They (sweden) were making all their shots," said McDonald, a U.S. Army veteran who lost his legs while on U.S. military patrol in Korea in 1991.
Down two points with the last rock advantage, the U.S. still had a chance to tie the game with four rocks remaining in the game. The U.S. had one rock in the back of the house that was in first position but missed a takeout of a stone on the far side of the house that allowed Sweden to remove the other stone and earn the win.
"It was a strategy mistake. The right call was the draw. I know that now and hopefully won't make that mistake again," Perez said. Despite the error, the win wasn't guaranteed at that point.
"Sweden didn't miss a shot, but we had our chance still there at the end," Perez said. "If you can't play the game to the last rock, we shouldn't be here."
The U.S. started the game much like so many others here this week - a bit on the shaky side.
Tuesday night they gave up the opening-end steal when Perez came up short drawing into the house, spotting the Swedes two points.
The U.S. got an opening in the second end when Jungnell missed his last two shots, allowing Perez to draw in for two points and tie the game. In the third end, the last-rock throwers both had perfect first stones but followed up with not-so-perfect second stones, resulting in just a single for the Swedes.
The U.S. was in trouble in the fourth as the Swedes continued to have near-perfect draw weight. Misses by the U.S. - Pierce on the peel attempt and McDonald with the takeout - allowed Sweden to pile granite in the four-foot. With his final stone of the end, Perez converted a side-angle raise for one to tie the game once again.
McDonald drew around the center guard with his second toss of the fifth end to give U.S. the rock that would help the Americans pester the Swedes with for the rest of the end. Ikonen was able to convert a soft tap-back of his stone in the top of the house for a single.
"I'm happy with the way I played. It was so much better," McDonald said and noted that they added pressure to his tires because when he delivered the wheels were coming off the ice. They practiced this morning at a local curling club and the results paid off as he shot 64 percent compared to his 53 percent average coming into today.
Jungnell used his final rock of the sixth to draw behind the center guard to the four-foot to grab shot rock. McDonald followed him down and got enough of it to push it to the back of the eight-foot and switch spots with Sweden. Ikonen would wreck on the guard twice, but the Americans weren't able to turn it into two points.
Kapinowski, like she's done so many times this week, got a stone positioned behind the center guard in the seventh end but it didn't stay in play for long as the U.S. wasn't able to grab control of the end. Perez got past the guard but just slid to the back of the house as he tried to freeze to a Swedish rock. Ikonen had no problem with the come-around draw to put a second stone in scoring position. Perez's final stone didn't curl enough but they'd escape by only giving up two points to Sweden.
The steady Kapinowski faltered in the eighth, failing to get her first stone over the hogline and allowing her second to slip into the house. Pierce drew down to the back of the house but then couldn't get his second stone to stick around. Sweden kept the Americans in the game with misses. Back and forth takeouts but all it took was one miss from Perez and the deuce opportunity to go to an extra end dissipated.
The top four teams at the conclusion of the round robin advance to the semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday. The gold-medal and bronze-medal games are set for 3:30 p.m. Saturday (local time).
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