Weekend recap: Para athletes lead the way for Canada
CBC
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From the summer Parapan Am Games in Chile to various winter sports around the globe, here's a look at what Canadian athletes did over the weekend in Olympic and Paralympic sports:
Parapan Am Games: Canada finishes with 9 gold, 3 Paralympic spots earned
When the flame went out last night in Chile, the Canadian team walked away with 52 medals — nine gold, 15 silver and 28 bronze. That was good for eighth in the official standings, which are sorted by gold, and Canada finished sixth in total medals. Brazil ran away with first place with a whopping 156 gold medals (nearly tripling the second-place United States' haul) and 343 total.
Canadians also earned three entries in next summer's Paralympic Games in Paris. The women's goalball team got in by defeating the United States in their gold-medal game on Friday, boccia players Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu won a spot with their pairs title victory, and archer Kyle Tremblay landed one with a bronze in his event.
WATCH | Canada strikes goalball gold against United States:
Three Canadian teams fell short of the gold medal they needed to qualify for the Paralympics but still earned a spot in a last-chance qualifier next year. The wheelchair rugby and men's and women's wheelchair basketball squads will all get their shot in March or April.
Cyclist Alexandre Hayward was Canada's top medal winner with four. His two golds tied him for the Canadian lead with Levine, who won a singles title before her pairs victory on Saturday. The 33-year-old Levine, now the owner of four Parapan Am Games medals in three appearances, was selected to carry the Canadian flag for yesterday's closing ceremony.
CBC Sports' Devin Heroux was in Chile covering the Parapan Ams. Read his reflection on the Games here. See the complete list of Canadian medallists here.
Figure skating: 5 Canadian teams qualify for the Grand Prix Final
Three Canadian pairs teams and two ice dance duos accumulated enough points this season to secure an invitation to the Dec. 7-10 Final in Beijing, which is reserved for the top six in each discipline. None of those Canadians competed at this weekend's regular-season-ending NHK Trophy in Japan, where Canada's Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier finished seventh in the pairs event, Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac were seventh in the ice dance and Wesley Chiu was 11th in the men's. Read about the results of all four events here.
The Canadian qualifiers for the Final are led by defending ice dance champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who tied for first place in their standings after winning both of their Grand Prix starts. Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps did the same in pairs. Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud were third in pairs while Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen and Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha tied for fifth in ice dance. No Canadian singles skaters qualified for the Final.
Skiing: Freestyler Evan McEachran lands his first World Cup win
McEachran's victory happened in time to make Friday's newsletter. But it bears repeating because no other Canadian skier won a medal this weekend, which included a pair of women's alpine races and World Cup season openers in cross-country and biathlon.
Canadian skip Kerri Einarson looked up Saturday and saw real people, instead of cardboard cut-outs, in the stands at Calgary's WinSport Event Centre. She heard the roar of the crowd instead of the sound of flushing toilets piercing the silence.
Aaron Judge doubled and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Brice Turang each had two hits as the United States beat Canada 5-3 on Friday night in Houston to reach the World Baseball Classic semifinals.
Canada's Natalie Wilkie captured her second biathlon gold of the Milano-Cortina Paralympics on Friday, winning the women's standing sprint pursuit for her fourth medal in as many events.
Canada made wheelchair curling history on Thursday as the first team at any Paralympics to complete round-robin play without a loss.
The winningest men's ski cross racer in history added to his total on Thursday.
Canada's Mark Arendz collected his 14th career Paralympic medal while teammate Brittany Hudak earned her fourth in Wednesday's standing cross-country skiing races at Milano Cortina.
Alphonso Davies covered his face with his shirt as he left the field with an injury in Bayern Munich's game against Atalanta in the Champions League on Tuesday in Bergamo, Italy, raising questions about the Canadian star's availability for the World Cup.
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.
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Canadian Para alpine skier Kalle Eriksson and guide Sierra Smith continued their impressive Paralympic debut on Monday by racing to bronze in the men's visually impaired super-G for their second medal.
Matt Dunstone won his first Canadian men's curling championship after knocking hard on the Brier's door in recent years.
Natalie Wilkie won Canada's first gold medal of the Milano-Cortina Paralympics, topping the podium in the women's standing biathlon on Sunday.