Canadian Paralympic Team on Day 4: Canada hits 10-medal mark at PyeongChang 2018

– Mollie Jepsen and Alana Ramsay capture gold and bronze in women’s standing Super Combined

– Mark Arendz wins bronze in 12.5KM biathlon
– All three athletes are now multi-medallists in PyeongChang

PyeongChang, March 13, 2018 – It was a multi-medal day for the Canadian Paralympic Team at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games on Tuesday, as Mollie Jepsen (West Vancouver, BC), Alana Ramsay (Calgary, AB), and Mark Arendz (Hartsville, PEI) captured a gold and two bronze medals. Canada sits fifth in total medals with 10 through four days of action.

MEDAL CHART:
Gold – 4    Silver – 1    Bronze – 5    TOTAL – 10

TOP HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY:
Mollie Jepsen, who was the first Canadian to clinch a medal back on day one of the Games, added a gold medal to her resume with a win in the women’s standing Super Combined event, which sees racers compete in both a Super-G and Slalom run in the same day. Though Jepsen has competed in both disciplines before, it was her first time racing them together in the Super Combined. At only 18 years of age, Jepsen has emerged as a rising star and now has two medals – a gold and a bronze in the downhill – at her first Paralympic Games.

“Because I’ve never raced in a super combined, the expectations were quite low, which I think took the pressure off. Before I left the start, the only words going through my head were ‘be aggressive’. I knew that if I just kept the tempo up, I could potentially do it.” – Mollie Jepsen
 
Alana Ramsay joined her compatriot on the podium as she claimed a bronze medal in the same Super Combined event. It’s the 23-year-old’s second third-place finish in PyeongChang as she also earlier reached the podium in the Super-G for her first Paralympic medal.

“This one feels really good. After Super-G the other day, I felt really confident with my skills and on the hill. Going down the hill, I could feel that confidence showing through. I had a really good training day yesterday, and I brought that into today. That’s what helped out.” – Alana Ramsay
 
Mark Arendz won his second medal of the Games, grabbing bronze in the 12.5KM men’s standing biathlon. He also placed third in the same event at Sochi 2014 and now has four Paralympic medals through two Games (two silver and two bronze). On Tuesday, Arendz led for part of the race but gave up his lead with two kilometres to go following a missed target. He’ll have more opportunities to add to his medal count with four races left across biathlon and cross-country in PyeongChang.

“I knew there were some tired guys, so I went for it from the start and tried to put some pressure on. I decided in that last bout (of shooting) to go for it all, throw it down, and go for the win. Unfortunately, I had the one miss and it made it a tight and interesting race.” – Mark Arendz

“I ran out of energy at the end. I am really happy with my race and it is another medal for Canada. I know everything is going well. I just need that last little tweak to finally win one.” – Mark Arendz
 
Brittany Hudak (Prince Albert, SK) gave Canada its top finish in women’s biathlon, coming in fifth in the standing 10KM event.
 
It was a nail biting day for the Canadian wheelchair curling team but they came out of it with two well-deserved wins. First, Canada posted a thrilling comeback to open the day. Down 5-1 after four ends to China, the Canadians then scored seven unanswered points to take the 8-5 victory. China had entered the match-up as the only undefeated team in the competition so far. Skip Mark Ideson (London, ON) and his team then pulled off a 6-5 extra-end triumph over the United States. After four days of play, Canada’s curlers now have a 5-2 record.

“It was a fun game. We don’t get down on each other on this team. There may be one player having a bad game, but we know how to pick each other up. It’s a pretty cool thing to be part of.” – Mark Ideson on the win over the U.S.