Canada's Natalie Wilkie skis to 3rd medal of Milano Cortina, earning sprint classic bronze
CBC
Canadian Para nordic skiing star Natalie Wilkie has now won a medal of every colour at the Milano-Cortina Paralympics, adding bronze in the women's standing sprint classic on Tuesday in Val di Fiemme.
It's Wilkie's first cross-country skiing medal in Italy after earning biathlon gold and silver.
The Salmon Arm, B.C., native crossed the line in a time of three minutes 40.2 seconds to finish behind Norway's Vilde Nilsen (3:31.3) and American Sydney Peterson (3:35.5) in the six-woman final at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium.
The 25-year-old Wilkie was the top qualifier and had the fastest overall semifinal time (3:31.4) earlier in the day.
Wilkie, one of Canada's flag-bearers for the opening ceremony, is now a 10-time Paralympic medallist. She took silver in Saturday's sprint biathlon before winning the women's individual biathlon on Sunday.
She also won a full set of medals at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
Canada now has eight medals through four days of competition at the Milano-Cortina Paralympics — one gold, three silver, four bronze. The full medal table is available here.
Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., finished last in the six-man final for the men's standing sprint classic after clocking 2:49.7.
Belarus' Raman Svirydzenka (2:35.4) won the race for his country's first medal of the Games, finishing ahead of Germany's Sebastian Marburger (2:38.1) and France's Benjamin Daviet (2:42.2).
In Para alpine, the Canadian duo of Kalle Eriksson and guide Sierra Smith missed the podium by just 0.05 seconds in the men's combined event, which consists of a super-G followed by a slalom.
Eriksson and Smith, aiming for their third medal in Italy, started strong by posting the second-fastest super-G (1:13.73), but their slalom time of 43.78 was only good for fifth, leaving them with a total time of 1:57.51.
The Canadians finished just over a minute behind Italian gold medallists Giacomo Bertagnolli and Andrea Ravelli (1:56.42) at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Neil Simpson and Rob Poth of Great Britain took silver in 1:57.07, while Austria's Johannes Aigner and Nico Haberl beat out the Canadians for bronze.
Kimberley, B.C.'s Eriksson and Ottawa's Smith, who are also partners, delivered Canada's first medal of the Games with downhill silver on Saturday before adding super-G bronze on Monday.
The Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics officially opened Friday amid the tensions of war in the Middle East, and with some countries boycotting the opening ceremony because of the return of the Russian flag to the global sports stage.
Iran will not participate in the Milan Cortina Paralympics because its only athlete set to compete can't safely travel to Italy amid the intensifying Middle East conflict, the International Paralympic Committee said Friday.
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