Paralympics Day 8: Austria’s Aigner Makes History

Saturday Morning brought the women’s Para Alpine finale to an unforgiving slalom course. Athletes raced for a thrilling conclusion, despite the rainy and slushy conditions.

Veronika Aigner of Austria became the most decorated female Para Alpine skier in Austrian history, taking gold by over four seconds in the Vision Impaired category. The win marks her fourth gold medal of these games. Her compatriot, Elina Starry took silver for her third medal of the Paralympics. Czechia’s Alexandra Rexova beat out Italy’s Martina Vozza for bronze by just 0.08 seconds. 

The fine margins of the Slalom continued on display in the Standing category. Canada’s Michaela Gosselin picked up her first medal of the games with bronze, edging out China’s Zhang Mengqiu by 0.22 seconds. China picked up silver with Zhu Wenjing’s finish. 

But the gold medal race in the Standing category came to a shocking conclusion. Sweden’s Ebba Aarsjoe, already a three-time gold medalist in Milan Cortina began her second run nearly two seconds ahead of the field. With the gold medal seemingly in hand, she flew down the first turns of the course to increase her lead. An aggressive cut brought her off balance as she nearly missed a gate, but she stayed on her skis, and on course. She continued on in double-time to keep her lead. 

Unbeknownst to Aarsjoe, despite her misstep, she still held a two second lead over Russia’s Varvara Voronchikhina, but she continued to cut through the course with an aggressive line. Coming down the final stretch of gates, she went wide of a gate, and couldn’t recover in time. She straddled the fourth gate from the bottom of the course, gold medal slipping from her grasp. Aarsjoe stood at the finish line in disbelief, as Voronchikhina slid into gold medal position, and Gosselin celebrated a bronze medal win she thought had eluded her.

In the Sitting category, the second run began with the first two skiers separated by one hundredth of a second. China’s Zhang Wenjing prevailed for gold, while Finland’s Nette Kiviranta won silver after just missing the podium in the Giant Slalom. 

The bronze medal came down to a familiar race these Paralympics between Audrey Pascual Seco of Spain, and Anna-Lena Forster of Germany. Pascual Seco had the fastest first run, but nearly every rider’s second run slowed significantly. Nearly every rider, but not Anna-Lena Forster. She notched the fastest time of the second run, and for a moment, held third place. Pascual Seco’s second run was a full two seconds slower than her first, but she slid in ahead of Forster, knocking the defending Paralympic champion off the podium by 0.08 seconds. 

Women’s Slalom - Vision Impaired

🥇Veronika Aigner/Guide: Eric Digruber - Austria

🥈Elina Stary/Guide: Stefan Winter - Austria

🥉Alexandra Rexova/Guide: Matus Duris - Czechia

Women’s Slalom - Standing

🥇Varvara Veronchikhina - Russia

🥈Zhu Wenjing - China

🥉Michaela Gosselin - Canada

Women’s Slalom - Sitting

🥇Zhang Wenjing - China

🥈Nette Kiviranta - Finland

🥉Audrey Pascual Seco - Spain

Americans retain Mixed Relay crown

On the Cross-Country course, Team USA defended their 2022 gold medal win in Beijing. Jake Adicoff began his anchor leg in fourth place, but brought his team ahead to victory by 12.5 seconds. Oksana Masters collects her 23rd medal after skiing the second leg, and Sydney Peterson gathers her third of the games. The team’s gold is also Adicoff’s third of the games, and Joshua Sweeney’s first. 

Ukraine led for much of the race, but Liudmyla Liashenko held on in her anchor leg for a silver finish, and China finished in third.

Cross-Country Mixed Relay 4 x 2.5km

🥇USA - Joshua Sweeney, Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson, Jake Adicoff & Reid Gobel, Guide

🥈Ukraine - Pavlo Bal, Taras Rad, Oleksandra Kononova, Liudmylia Liashenko

🥉China - Mao Zhongwo, Zheng Peng, Wang Yue & Cheng Guoming, Guide, Huang Lingxin

Up Next  

Sunday brings our 2026 Paralympic journey to its end with one last run on the Tesoro Cross-Country track with the 20km race. Competition will begin at 4:00mAM Eastern time, with closing ceremonies following at 3:30 PM Eastern.