Lauren Woolstencroft thought she was capable of something like this, but she wasn't certain nothing is certain in ski racing. But under bluebird skies and sunshine on Friday (March 19), the standing skier tore through the Whistler Creekside course to win her fourth gold medal in four races at the 2010 Paralympics.
The North Vancouver racer utterly owned Friday's super G race in the women's standing category, winning with a time of one minute, 26.46 seconds that was nearly five and a half seconds faster than the run of runner-up Melania Corradini of Italy.
The crowd of thousands howled as Woolstencroft steamed toward the finish line, with the roar building and building until she shot across to victory and raised both hands in triumph a big gesture for a very calm, collected and determined skier.
Woolstencroft had considered retiring after the 2006 Games, but is certainly "super happy" now that she didn't. A five-time Paralympic medallist, eight-time world champion and winner of more than 50 international medals, Woolstencroft said she thought she might have been capable of winning four gold medals in four events at the 2010 Games, but the tour-de-force performance is still "more than I expected."
"I knew I had it in me I mean, I have medaled in all these events in World Cup or in the Games before, so I knew I had the potential. I think the biggest thing is just to repeat day after day in such a hectic schedule that we have five events, especially after losing the first couple days I think that's the biggest hurdle. But obviously (I'm) super happy, but I'd say, more than my expectations," Woolstencroft said.
She took Canada to a new record for total gold medals won at a Winter Paralympic Games, bringing the nation's tally to seven so far in the 2010 Games to beat the total of six set at the 2002 Paralympics where Woolstencroft won two gold medals and one bronze. She also captured one gold and one silver medal at the 2006 Paralympics in Turin.
Edmonton's Viviane Forest, the visually impaired racer guided by Whistler's Lindsay Debou, dug deep once again to deliver her fourth medal in four races, keeping alive her hopes of reaching the podium in all five events though she's struggling with a painful pulled groin muscle.
Forest and Debou skied a somewhat conservative run to conserve strength, bearing in mind the five-podium goal, and Forest was a bit surprised to find they had won a silver medal in the super G event, finishing just behind Slovakia's Henrieta Farkasova and guide Natalia Subrtova, who won their third 2010 Games medal.
"I'm surprised to be second, I did think I would end up fifth or fourth. I was totally running out of gas. I kind of apologized all of my way down, (saying to Debou), 'I'm so sorry,'" Forest said.
"I'm more than happy (with the silver medal). I feel quite fatigued today, I'm running a bit out of gas, but we dug deep, and Lindsay did help me all the way down the course," she added.
Debou described their super G race as a "story of survival."
"I'm super happy. Each of our medals has an important piece to our puzzle of getting five for five, and every day has its own unique story. Today was the story of survival, and I think we made it down good, we made it down safe," Debou said.
Looking ahead to the final alpine ski race of the 2010 Games, Saturday's (March 20) super combined event, she said, "We're really strong in slalom, so I think if we lay a good run in slalom we'll have a really good chance tomorrow to be on the podium again."
Canada's Karolina Wisniewska and Melanie Schwartz finished seventh and 14th, respectively, in the women's standing race. Vernon's Josh Dueck finished 13th in the men's sitting race, and said he was "pretty happy" with his solid run in an event that isn't his strength.
Germany's dominant standing skier Gerd Schonfelder captured his 21st Paralympic medal by winning the men's standing event, and Jeff Dickson was the top Canadian in 16th place. Whistler's Matt Hallat and Morgan Perrin finished 18th and 20th, respectively, in the men's standing race, followed by young Canadian rookie Kirk Shornstein in 26th.
Canada's Chris Williamson, the top-ranked visually impaired skier in the IPC World Cup circuit this season, had another tough day in the 2010 Games, finishing sixth in his event with guide Nick Brush while France's Nicolas Berejny and guide Sophie Troc claimed gold.
The super combined event starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday, after a schedule change due to weather moved all of the super G events to Friday and the super combined race to Saturday, leaving Sunday (March 21) quiet on the Creekside slopes.
Tickets purchased for Sunday races will be refunded, according to Vancouver Games organizers.
