China, Slovakia, Canada, Sweden to semi; Finland takes historic gold
The semi-finalists for wheelchair curling in the Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022 were decided on Thursday (March 10), with some remarkable teams that made it into the top four.
Defending champions China, triple gold medalists Canada, Slovakia and Sweden will all play for a shot at gold. While the hosts and Canada were expected to advance, Slovakia reached the knockout stage for the first time while Sweden is aiming for its best finish since 2010.
In Paralympic skiing, Finland won its first Paralympic gold.
History day in para alpine skiing
A trio of historic results led to the events of para alpine skiing on Thursday when the men tried giant slalom.
Santeri Kiiveri won Finland’s first ever Paralympic medal – silver in super combination – by topping the podium in the men’s position.
“The giant slalom has always been really good for me but I have not been able to do good runs in the races and now everything went together,” said the 21-year-old.
“It has been a fantastic job for me. After the first medal, I decided that now I would just enjoy and gas up and it paid off.”
Kiiveri is now the holder of a gold and silver medal from Beijing 2022.
USA’s Thomas Walsh was only 0.04 seconds behind Kiiveri in second. France’s Arthur Bauchet completed the podium for his third medal in Beijing 2022.
Norwegian Jesper Pedersen took gold in the giant slalom sitting, which made his own medal taking three.
He said: “I just have to try to look at every opportunity as a new opportunity and try to fight for gold. Of course I have had many golds by now but I always want more.
“I’m kind of the most consistent skier on the track.
“We have just trained a lot. We probably have the most days on skis on the track. And even under these conditions we have a glacier in Norway we are on all summer.
“We have gone through everything, we trained a lot this season and we knew what to expect. Today we showed that we have done many good things.”
Jesper Pedersen goes for his fourth gold in slalom on Sunday. ⒸOIS photos
Italian Rene de Silvestro took silver and China’s Liang Zilu took bronze.
Austria’s Johannes Aigner, who was second after the first run, led by Matteo Fleischmann, made a brilliant second run to wrestle the gold from Italy’s defending champion Giacomo Bertagnolli for visually impaired men.
“It’s absolutely incredible. Since we already have gold, silver and bronze, it’s just gold we wanted [in the giant slalom]. It’s unbelievable for us that we managed it, said Aigner.
Johannes Aigner and the guide Matthias Fleishmann turn out to be a dream saver. ⒸOIS photos
Bertagnolli and the guide Andrea Ravelli settled for silver. Slovakia’s Miroslav Haraus, guided by Maros Hudik, completed the top three.
Harau’s teammate Marek Kubacka – the only completely blind skier in the field – reached his best place as fourth ever with guide Maria Zatovicova.
Wheelchairs make their own history
Defending champions China, Sweden, Canada and Slovakia all secured places in the semifinals of Wheelchair Curling on Thursday when the sun went down on round-robin games.
The hosts qualified for the playoffs – with a match in hand – by beating Britain 6-3 at the National Aquatics Center this morning to take their seventh victory in the round robin stage.
After a shaky start, where they lost their first two matches, China found the form the following days.
China’s Zhuo Yan said: “At first we were not used to playing on such a big stage, where we meet strong opponents. With each match we gained experience and gradually improved.”
Traditional wheelchair curling power plants Sweden and Canada also confirmed places in the semifinals after wins on Thursday morning.
Canada finished the round robin step with seven wins and three losses, while Sweden’s 10-7 comeback win against the USA on Thursday morning gave them seven wins from nine games and secured their place with one match left.
“We must try to work with our mentality and focus on the next goal and the next goal, and we managed to do that,” said Sweden’s Viljo Petersson-Dahl. “We came out strong in the seventh and made a good finish. And that was the key to our win today.”
Sweden goes for its first medal since Vancouver 2010 when they secured bronze. ⒸOIS photos
Canada, three-time champions and undefeated at a Paralympics until PyeongChang 2018 when China stole their thunder, are aiming to regain their title.
At the same time, Slovakia reached the knockout stage for the first time, despite a nervous wait.
Radoslav Duris’ rink beat Switzerland 8-6 in the morning and then had to keep his fingers crossed that Latvia would lose the equalizer against Great Britain. The Latvians fell to the British 8-4, which confirmed a semi-final place for Slovakia.
The semifinals will offer an exciting match-up between China and Canada – a repeat of 2018 when the Chinese carried out a shock victory on the way to gold – while Sweden meets Slovakia.
The team that misses a chance at gold plays for bronze later in the day.