Canada Secures First Medals at Milano-Cortina Paralympics

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – Canada’s Paralympic team began the Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games with a flourish, securing three medals on Saturday, March 7th, 2026. The medals included a silver in para alpine skiing and a bronze in para alpine sitting downhill, alongside a silver in para biathlon.

Eriksson and Smith Claim Silver in Downhill

Para alpine skier Kalle Eriksson and his guide Sierra Smith earned Canada’s first medal of the Games, taking silver in the men’s visually impaired downhill competition. The duo completed the course in one minute 18.33 seconds at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre. CBC Sports reports that this was their Paralympic debut.

“Both me and Sierra are on top of the world right now and still pumping. I can’t believe our run and I’m so proud of how we did it,” Eriksson said. Smith added, “It definitely wasn’t perfect but we hit the points we wanted to, and we skied very strong. We had a quality run obviously always room to improve. I’m super happy with our performance today.”

Austria’s Johannes Aigner and Nico Haberl won gold with a time of 1:16.08, while Italy’s Giacomo Bertagnolli and Andrea Ravelli secured bronze in 1:18.64.

Oatway Secures Bronze in Downhill

Calgarian Kurt Oatway added to Canada’s medal count, winning bronze in the men’s sitting downhill with a time of 1:19.42. Alpine Canada highlighted this as Oatway’s second Paralympic medal, following a gold in the super-G at the PyeongChang 2018 Games.

“It was tough conditions today with snow being pretty soft,” Oatway stated. “I focused on being gentle with my edges today because if you’re too hard on your edge the surface will blow out underneath you and your race will be over.”

Oatway’s achievement is particularly notable given his recovery from a serious crash at the 2022 Para Snow Sports World Championships, which forced him to miss the Beijing Winter Games. He expressed his determination, stating, “I had a bad crash…broke my collarbone, three ribs in five places, tore two ligaments and punctured a lung…The road to coming back was long, but here I am, and I’ve got a piece of hardware to reveal for it.”

Wilkie Wins Biathlon Silver

Natalie Wilkie secured another silver medal for Canada in the women’s standing sprint biathlon event, finishing in 18:46.4 over the 7.5-kilometre course. CBC Sports reported that Wilkie shot clean through two rounds at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium in Val di Fiemme.

“It doesn’t feel real. This was a big goal of mine heading into the Games, to win a medal in biathlon, and to do it on the first day is so special,” Wilkie said. She finished 4.9 seconds behind Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova, with Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine taking bronze in 19:13.9.

Other Canadian Performances

Alexis Guimond finished with a DNF in the men’s standing downhill, while Mollie Jepsen finished fourth in the women’s standing downhill, but re-aggravated a lower-body injury. Mark Arendz finished fifth in the men’s standing sprint biathlon.

Russia Returns to the Podium

The Milano-Cortina Games as well marked the return of Russian athletes competing under their own flag, with Varvara Voronchikhina and Aleksei Bugaev winning bronze medals in the women’s and men’s downhill standing competitions, respectively. This is Russia’s first Paralympic medals since 2014.