Looking ahead at Canadian Paralympic Team action on Day 1

– Competition begins at PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games

– Medals to be won in downhill skiing and biathlon

– Canada kicks off preliminary Para ice hockey and wheelchair curling action PyeongChang,

The Canadian Paralympic Team will start its medal quest at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday.

• Para alpine skiing kicks off with the downhill races starting at 9:30 a.m. local time/7:30 p.m. Friday ET. Mac Marcoux captured the bronze medal in this discipline as a 16-year-old in Sochi four years ago and is a medal favourite once again with guide Jack Leitch in men’s visually impaired competition. Among the other Canadians in contention are Alana Ramsay and Mollie Jepsen in women’s standing, Alexis Guimond in men’s standing, and Kurt Oatway in men’s sitting.
• Medals will also be awarded in biathlon, with the 7.5KM men’s and 6KM women’s races. The sitting category will start the day at 10 a.m. local time/8 p.m. Friday ET followed by standing and visually impaired at 11:45 a.m. local time/9:45 p.m. Friday ET. Six Canadians will be in action: Mark Arendz, Collin Cameron, Sebastien Fortier, and Derek Zaplotinsky in men’s and Brittany Hudak and Emily Young in women’s. Arendz was a silver medallist for Canada at Sochi 2014 in this event.
• Canada opens against Sweden in its first preliminary Para ice hockey game. Puck drop is 7 p.m. local time/5 a.m. ET. Canada is looking for its first gold medal since Torino 2006, and won bronze in 2014.
• In wheelchair curling action, skip Mark Ideson will lead Canada into its first two round-robin matches, versus Switzerland at 2:35 p.m. local time/12:35 a.m. ET and versus Norway at 7:35 p.m. local time/5:35 a.m. ET. Three members of the squad were part of the gold medal-winning team in Sochi: Ideson, Ina Forrest, and Dennis Thiessen.  

WHERE TO WATCH

Television coverage:

CBC: 6-10 a.m. ET (LIVE COVERAGE) and 4-6 p.m. ET

Radio-Canada: 3-5 p.m. ET

Sportsnet One: 1-4 a.m. ET and 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sunday ET

AMI: 1-4 p.m. ET

Live Streaming:

Events will be live streamed on the CBC and Radio-Canada websites, Paralympic.ca, Twitter and Facebook and will be available on demand following the conclusion of the live event.

People across Canada can also sign up to be their own broadcaster at greatnessisrare.ca, selecting the events they wish to share with their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. Once selected events start, live coverage will automatically appear in their feed as if they are broadcasting it. 

Click here for the complete broadcast schedule.