Accomplished veterans and rising stars make Canada top medal threat in Para alpine skiing

Para alpine skiing has traditionally been one of Canada’s strongest sports at the Paralympic Winter Games and it should be no different at the 2022 edition.  

Ten athletes will be hitting the slopes in Beijing for Canada, with four returnees and a talented crop of newcomers already shaking the international scene.

The veterans returning are visually impaired skier Mac Marcoux, back for this third Games this time with guide Tristan Rodgers, standing skiers Mollie Jepsen and Alana Ramsay, who also hope to add to their Games medal count, along with Alexis Guimond in men’s standing.

Marcoux has earned over 50 World Cup medals in his career along with five Paralympic Games medals including two gold. Injuries have kept him out of action this season and he says he is not going to put pressure on himself at these Games.

“My goals throughout my career are never results based,” Marcoux told the North Bay Nugget last week. “If I can come out of each event just stoked about the way I skied and happy with the way we came into the event, right from the preparation all the way through, that’s my goal at the end of the day.

‘’The podium is just the icing on the cake.”

One of his top opponents is Giacomo Bertagnolli of Italy, who left PyeongChang 2018 with four medals, including two golds with guide Fabrizio Casal.

However in 2019, he split from Casal to compete with Andrea Ravelli. The pair quickly picked up the pace, claiming multiple victories across disciplines to show they will continue to be a force to be reckoned with at Beijing 2022.

Jepsen was a standout in 2018 earning four medals, including a gold, in her Games debut. After battling illness and injuries since then, she is back on track this season. She’s reached the podium in her nine international races this season including three medals in January’s World Para Snow Sports Championships.

‘’I’m always pushing for the podium and hoping that will happen, that’s always the end goal for me,’’ Jepsen told the North Shore News. ‘’But my biggest thing going into these [Games] is, I just want to go out there and leave it all up on the hill and be happy with my intention and intensity.”

Along with Jepsen and Ramsay, a double bronze medallist in PyeongChang, in the women’s standing category is first-time Paralympian Michaela Gosselin.

Marie Bochet of France is the queen of women’s standing internationally. Bochet has amassed an incredible eight Paralympic and 21 world titles in a glittering career spanning 13 years. That places her amongst the top five in the all-time rankings.

Also watch for Canadian Games rookie Katie Combaluzier, a triple medallist at the recent worlds in women’s sit skiing as she resumes her battle with Anna-Lena Forster of Germany in Beijing.

Three more Paralympic first-timers are Logan Leach and guide Julien Petit in the men’s visually impaired classification and sit skier Brian Rowland.

Canada will be without two of its top athletes in Beijing. Frederique Turgeon, a three-time world championship medallist in 2019, was injured during a training run after her arrival in Beijing for the Games and will not be able to compete. She is joined on the sidelines by Kurt Oatway, the 2018 Paralympic men’s sit skiing super-G champion, who was injured in a training run at the world championships in January.

The men’s and women’s downhill events will kick off the Para alpine skiing action at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday March 5.