PARALYMPICS:

Woolstencroft nabs 4th gold, Forest snags 4th medal

March 19, 2010 — SRC Staff Report     ►Photo: Lauren Woolstencroft (Kevin Bogetti-Smith/CPC)

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WHISTLER, B.C. — Lauren Woolstencroft of North Vancouver, B.C., won the women’s standing super-giant slalom race Friday for her fourth gold medal of the Paralympics.

Woolstencroft finished in a time of 1 minute, 26.46 seconds, over five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

It was the ninth career Paralympic medal for Woolstencroft, who was born without legs below the knee and no left arm below the elbow.

Earlier, Viviane Forest of Edmonton finished second in the women’s super-G for the visually impaired to earn her fourth medal of the Paralympics.

Forest and guide Lindsay Debou of Whistler, B.C. covered the course in 1:37.54.

Henrieta Farkasovia of Slovakia and guide Natalia Suvrtova won in 1:33.81.

Woolstencroft helped Canada set a record for most gold medals at any Winter Paralympic Games with seven. The previous mark was six, set at the 2002 Salt Lake City Paralympics.

“While there are plenty of competitions still to be played this week, it’s important for our team to pause for a moment to celebrate this significant record,” said Blair McIntosh, chef de mission, Team Canada. “It is fitting that Lauren is the athlete to break our Canadian record. Congratulations to all of our amazing athletes, coaches and support staff for establishing a new golden performance. With two days left, we hope to still add to this new standard.”

With four gold medals already for Woolstencroft at these Games and the super-combined scheduled for Saturday, she has a chance to tie Chantal Petitclerc (athletics) and Stephanie Dixon (swimming) for most gold medals at any single Paralympic Games, summer or winter.

"This is definitely more then I expected. I knew I had it in me because I have medaled in all these events in World Cup or in the Games before,” said Woolstencroft, who with her third gold medal passed a mark that she shared with para-nordic skier Brian McKeever for most gold medals by a Canadian athlete in a Paralympic Winter Games. “The biggest thing is to repeat it day after day with the hectic schedule that we have with five races in six days, especially after losing the first couple of days. That was the biggest hurdle. But I am obviously really happy.”

The IPC World Cup overall champions, Forest and Debou got their fourth medal of these Paralympic Games.

"It has been an amazing experience so far in Whistler,” said Forest. “The crowd is awesome, all the crew helping out makes these Games just even more special. I am really happy with my race today even if I ran out of gas a little bit today. We had to dig deep and Lindsay helped me all the way through the end of the course,"

Also in the standing category, Karolina Wisniewska placed seventh with Melanie Schwartz 14th. Andrea Dziewior did not take part in this event due to her crash in the finish area in yesterday's downhill event.

The 2010 IPC World Cup overall champion, Christopher Williamson, and his guide Nick Brush finished in sixth place.

Josh Dueck took 13th place in the men's sitting division as Akiro Kano from Japan won gold. Jeff Dickson was the top Canadian in 16th in the men's standing category with Matt Hallat 18th, while Morgan Perrin finished 20th.

The Canadian Paralympic Committee set a goal of finishing within the top three in gold-medal standings at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. Canada currently sits third behind Russia and Germany.

HISTORICAL MEDAL COUNT FOR CANADA AT THE PARALYMPIC WINTER GAMES

Year    Rank    Gold    Silver    Bronze    Total
1976 Ornskoldsvik    9 (9)    2    0    2    4
1980 Geilo    8 (7)    2    3    1    6
1984 Innsbruck    10 (7)    2    8    4    14
1988 Innsbruck    8 (8)    5    3    5    13
1992 Tignes - Albertville    9 (9)    2    4    6    12
1994 Lillehammer    14 (12)    1    2    5    8
1998 Nagano    15 (9)    1    9    5    15
2002 Salt Lake City    6 (7)    6    4    5    15
2006 Torino    6 (6)    5    3    5    13
2010 Vancouver    3 (4)    7    4    3    14

Note: The International Paralympic Committee ranks countries according to the total number of gold medals earned. The number in parenthesis ( ) is where Canada ranked in total medals. Bold indicates an an-time best for Canada. The 2010 totals for Canada are as of 2 p.m. PT on March 19, 2010.  SRC

— The Canadian Press, Alpine Canada and CPC contributed to this report