Alpine Events Finish Strong at Whistler Creekside

“Today the national anthem will play and that’s perfect because Jakub is our colleague and we congratulate him.”

The final day of competition at Whistler Creekside included the speed of Super-G and the finesse of Slalom during the Super Combined events.

In the Men’s Visually Impaired category, Slovakia continued to dominate with Jakub Krako (SVK, B2) and guide Juraj Medera winning their third gold medal and Miroslav Haraus (SVK, B2) with guide Martin Makovnik winning their second bronze of the Paralympics.

“On the course we are enemies and in the finish we are friends,” said Krako of his relationship with teammate Haraus.

“Today the national anthem will play and that’s perfect because Jakub is our colleague and we congratulate him,” Haraus said about sharing the podium with his teammate.

Between the two Slovakians was Gianmaria Dal Maistro (ITA, B3) with guide Tommaso Balasso taking the silver medal in possibly the last race of his competitive skiing career.

With thoughts of retirement, Gerd Schoenfelder (GER, LW5/7-2) may have ended his Paralympic career on a high note by winning gold in the Super Combined (Standing) with a time of 2:11.84. This was his fourth gold medal and fifth medal overall at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

Adding to the excitement of the day for Schoenfelder, his wife also gave birth to their second child, Leopold, during the Super-G race of the Super Combined event. Finishing just 0.2 seconds behind Schoenfelder was Vincent Gauthier-Manuel (FRA, LW6/8-2) to win his second silver medal, with Cameron Rahles-Rahbula (AUS, LW2) skiing the bronze.

Martin Braxenthaler (GER, LW10-2) won his third gold medal in the Super Combined Sitting category. Two Austrians, Juergen Egle (AUT, LW11) and Philipp Bonadimann (AUT, LW11) finished behind Braxenthaler winning the silver and bronze respectively.

In the Women’s Super Combined (Visually Impaired), Danelle Umstead (USA, B2) with guide Rob Umstead won their second bronze. Viviane Forest (CAN, B2) with guide Lindsay Debou managed to reach the podium in all five Alpine Skiing events by winning silver in the Super Combined race. Henrieta Farkasova (SVK, B3) and guide Natalia Subrtova skied to their third gold medal with a combined time of 2:34.61.

Lauren Woolstencroft’s (CAN, LW3-1) supremacy continued in the Super Combined races, as she won her fifth gold medal of the Games. Her combined time of 2:22.67 was just too fast for Solene Jambaque (FRA, LW9-2), who was 12.15 seconds behind Woolstencroft but won the silver medal. Karolina Wisniewska (CAN, LW3-2) won her second bronze of the Vancouver Games.

In the final Alpine Skiing competition, Team USA continued their success in the Women’s Sitting category by finishing with a gold for Stephani Victor (USA, LW12-2) and a bronze for Alana Nichols (USA, LW11) in the Super Combined event. Claudia Loesch also ended successfully, winning her fourth medal, a silver, in this event.