CALGARY – Alpine Canada announced the 11-member Para alpine ski team for the 2022-23 season last week, including 10 racers who travelled to the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in March as well as 2018 gold medallist Kurt Oatway making his return from injury.
The squad includes Paralympic multi-medallists Mollie Jepsen of West Vancouver, Alexis Guimond of Gatineau, Que. and Mac Marcoux of Sault Ste Marie, Ont., joined by his guide Tristan Rodgers of Ottawa.
After a quadruple medal performance at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Jepsen battled injuries and Crohn’s disease through most of the next quadrennial but produced a fantastic 2021-22 campaign.
Still only 23, Jepsen – Canada’s Closing Ceremony flag bearer in Beijing – capped the year with gold in the downhill and silver in the giant slalom in the women’s standing events at the Games. Heading into the Chinese capital, she reached the podium in her nine international races including a silver and two bronze at the World Para Snow Sports Championships and two gold, one silver, and three bronze on the World Cup circuit.
Guimond, 22, notched a bronze in Beijing in the men’s standing Super G to mark the second straight Games he’s posted a podium result. The result crowned a great 2021-22 in which he earned two silver medals and a bronze at two stops on the World Cup circuit.
After changing guides after each of his past two Paralympic Games appearances, Marcoux, 25, will get some stability on that front with Rodgers fulfilling guide duties once again. The pair won its eight races on the World Cup two seasons ago including Marcoux’s 50th career win.
The duo secured a silver in the men’s visually impaired downhill race in Beijing before an injury to Marcoux forced their withdrawal from the rest of the Games.
Speaking of injuries, both Frederique Turgeon of Candiac, Que., in women’s standing, and men’s sit siker Oatway of Calgary, the 2018 Super G Paralympic champion, are both on the team this season after being on the mend. Oatway was injured in training at the world championships in January, which preempted his ability to compete at the 2022 Games, while Turgeon made it to Beijing but was injured before competition began.
Rounding out the squad are sit-skiers Katie Combaluzier of Toronto and Brian Rowland of Merrickville, Ont., visually impaired racer Logan Leach of Lumby, B.C. with his guide Julien Petit of Bromont, Que., and Michaela Gosselin of Collingwood, Ont. in the women’s standing.
They all received valuable experience in their Games debuts in Beijing.
There was a significant retirement on the team following Beijing, with three-time Paralympian Alana Ramsay of Calgary hanging up her poles. She won four total medals at her last two Games appearances including two at Beijing 2022.
Longtime head coach Jean-Sébastien Labrie also stepped down at the end of last season as head coach after 16 years at the helm. He is replaced by Will Marshall, a part of the coaching staff for the past seven years.
