Karolina Wisniewska missed the moment that made her a seven-time Paralympic medallist.
The Vancouver-based ski racer, a three-time Paralympian who returned from retirement to race on the Whistler Creekside courses at the 2010 Games, sat in fourth place after a fast first run in the women's standing slalom race on Monday (March 15). After a strong second run, Wisniewska watched Germany's Andrea Rothfuss beat her time, with North Vancouver's Lauren Woolstencroft and Slovakia's Petra Smarzova leaders after the first run still to come.
And then, somehow, Smarzova skied around the wrong side of a gate early in her second run, knocking the Slovakian racer out of contention and putting Wisniewska on the podium. Wisniewska wasn't watching when it happened, but her vocal supporters in the rowdy crowd clued her in.
"I actually didn't see it, I was talking to someone, but I could hear the crowd. She's a really sweet girl, she's a good friend, and I felt really badly for her but I then started screaming," Wisniewska said.
Woolstencroft then steamed across the finish line in front of the cheering crowd which included family members who were pumping big red letters spelling her first name to become the 2010 Paralympic women's standing slalom champion by a margin of more than six seconds.
Woolstencroft said she was "so happy" to have secured her fourth Paralympic gold medal, "especially in slalom, which really hasn't been my best (event) this year at all, and especially to have Karolina on the podium with me we've trained hard, we've put so much time and resources into getting here, so it's just so great to actually do it, especially (in) the first race."
Rothfuss will take home the silver medal, and Wisniewska's bronze meant, as teammate Chris Williamson pointed out, that she won her fifth consecutive Paralympic medal a streak with an eight-year gap, dating back to the slalom race at the 2002 Games, where she won silver.
"It's really special to do it at home, and it's super special for me, because I retired the year after Salt Lake City, so I was out of the game for a long, long time," said Wisniewska, who was born with cerebral palsy that affects her muscle coordination, lower-body strength and balance.
Woolstencroft's victory marked her sixth Paralympic medal, after she earned five in the 2002 and 2006 Games, and Canada's first gold medal in alpine skiing at the 2010 Games. It also came as a slight surprise to Woolstencroft, as she's had some struggles with the slalom discipline this season, due to equipment issues and assorted other elements.
"I knew I could do it, but the slalom field I think is one of the toughest in terms of the number of girls who can actually win. So (I was) super surprised at the time gap, would never have expected that, and surprised with the podium, a little bit, not the people that we've seen winning this year," said Woolstencroft, a lifelong skier and longtime racer who was born without legs below her knees and no left arm below her elbow.
New Zealand's Adam Hall emerged as the champion in the exciting men's standing slalom race. Hall had a lead of more than two seconds over Australia's Cameron Rahles-Rahbula after the first run, but he nearly gave away the win as he fell in his second run.
But Hall, who was born with Spina Bifida but is still able to walk, sprang back into action because he hadn't missed any gates, and he completed his run to win gold by less than half a second. Germany's Gerd Schonfelder sprang up from sitting fourth after the first run to win silver, and Rahles-Rahbula hung on for bronze.
"I knew if I got up and just went as hard as I could to the very bottom, I'd still be in it. And it came down to the nail," said Hall, who has won two World Cup slalom races in the last two years and was delighted to come through at the Games in front of a supportive crowd.
Squamish resident Matt Hallat, who has long been skiing down these Whistler slopes, had some 50 supporters cheering him on in Monday's slalom race, including a major "Go Matt" banner made as a surprise by his father.
But Hallat was disappointed with his skiing he sat 17th after a rocky first run, and wound up 31st after nearly falling late in his second run while the crowd roared him toward the finish line.
"I just didn't ski very well, and was pretty tight all around, I think," Hallat said.
He felt some first-race jitters and will learn from that in tackling his next 2010 Games events, starting with Thursday's (March 18) downhill, he added. Despite his disappointment, the crowd unstintingly cheered him across the finish line.
"I was a bit frustrated with my skiing, but when you've got that kind of crowd, it's still pretty exciting," he said.
The nearly full stands featured a multinational display of many flags and banners supporting the racers from all over the world.
"It's almost like a home crowd here. There are a lot of Aussies in Whistler," Rahles-Rahbula remarked.
The crowd included some 859 spectators from area schools, including about 200 students from Spring Creek Community School, about 80 from Signal Hill Elementary and some 180 from Mamquam Elementary so there were many young voices heard chanting for Canada and singing the national anthem.
