Viviane Forest shed a few tears in the Creekside Gondola on her way up to the start of the 2010 Paralympic downhill race on Thursday (March 18), fearing she might not be able to run the race.
Though she and guide Lindsay Debou of Whistler have still managed to win two medals in their two races so far on the Whistler courses, the deeply determined visually impaired ski racer has been battling through a painful pulled groin injury, and she wasn't sure whether she could do the downhill race.
But she and Debou got in the gate, and they told each other to take deep breaths, have fun and enjoy how lucky they were to be skiing in this event, under bluebird skies and on a perfectly prepared course.
That attitude sent them speeding across the finish line in a time of one minute, 27.51 seconds to win their first gold medal of the 2010 Games, beating silver medallist Henrieta Farkasova of Slovakia by more than six tenths of a second and delighting their flag-waving and sign-toting fans in the full stands.
"I found the strength somewhere, and we did it. I'm so happy, so pleased," Forest said.
After winning silver and bronze medals so far in the 2010 Games, Forest said the gold felt "outstanding."
"That's the gold that I almost promised Canadians I would (earn). My goal was to have at least one gold and podium five times, so we got the gold. I'm even more pleased because it's on the downhill. This means so much. It's such a difficult course here, and I'm very happy," Forest said.
As the first racers out of the gate on the beautiful Whistler bluebird day, Forest and Debou set a high standard for Canada, and North Vancouver's Lauren Woolstencroft followed through. The dominanting standing skier won her third gold medal of the 2010 Games in her downhill event, beating her closest competitor, silver medallist Solene Jambaque of France, by nearly four and a half seconds.
After her confident and clean run, Woolstencroft said the feelings on winning her third gold medal in three Paralympic events on home snow hadn't quite sunk in yet, but she was pleased to have performed at her best once again.
That third gold medal, she said, "feels great. This is the first Paralympic downhill medal that I've ever got It feels nice to finally get one." Now an eight-time Paralympic medallist, Woolstencroft finished fourth in the 2006 downhill and crashed out of the 2002 race.
Vancouver's Karolina Wisniewska, winner of a bronze medal in Monday's (March 15) slalom race alongside Woolstencroft, finished fifth in the women's standing downhill.
Hopes for a Canadian medal on the men's side didn't materialize, as several of the Canadian competitors crashed or fell just short of the podium.
In the men's sit-skiing race, Vernon's Josh Dueck laid down a solid run on the tough course that took out eight of the 28 men's sitting competitors, and finished fifth with a time of 1:19.88, seven tenths of a second away from a bronze medal.
Dueck was a medal threat as the 2009 downhill world champion and winner of the World Cup Finals downhill race in Whistler last season.
Whistler's Sam Danniels charged the course hard, cheered on by a vocal crowd of supporters with bells and banners aplenty. But he crashed hard on a tricky turn, hurtling through one layer of safety fencing.
Canada's Chris Williamson, a favourite in the visually impaired category, took a tough spill on the Franz's Downhill course after catching a lot of air coming over the big Hot Air jump just before the finish line.
Williamson, the downhill silver medallist at the 2006 Games and the overall leader in the men's visually impaired downhill standings at the end of the last World Cup season, said he was happy with how he attacked his run despite the disappointing ending, and he's looking forward to Friday's (March 19) super G races.
Squamish resident Matt Hallat delivered a personal-best Paralympic result in the downhill, finishing 11th in a strong field led by Paralympic alpine skiing legend Gerd Schonfelder of Germany, who captured his 14th Games gold medal.
Hallat, whose previous best finish at a Paralympic Games was his 31st-place result in the 2006 slalom race, said his solid downhill run was assisted by his confidence on the course after many years of skiing the Whistler slopes.
Whistler speedster Morgan Perrin finished a solid 15th place in the men's standing race, one day after finishing 21st in the giant slalom, his Games debut race.
After the downhill races wrapped, the Vancouver Games organizing committee announced more changes to the alpine skiing schedule due to the weekend's weather forecast.
The super G races for all of the categories are now set to run on Friday (March 19), beginning at 10 a.m., followed by the super combined races on Saturday (March 20), also starting at 10 a.m.
Tickets for Sunday's (March 21) alpine events will be refunded, according to a Thursday statement from the Games organizing committee.
