Paralympics Quick Hits Day 2: Cecile Hernandez Wins Gold On International Women’s Day!
Written by Lesley Ryder
Para Snowboard legend Cecile Hernandez of France has won her fifth Paralympic medal. She edged out Kate Delson, a competitor 31 years her junior to win her second Paralympic gold medal.
At 51 years old, she’s the last remaining rider from the 2014 games, the first for women’s para snowboard. She’s made it her mission to keep the sport alive for the next generation.
After the 2018 games, her classification, LL1, was pulled from the Paralympics. She and Brenna Huckaby fought for the right to compete in the remaining LL2 classification. Just before the 2022 games, a German court ruled in their favor, allowing them to compete in the 2022 games. Hernandez took gold in the Para Snowboard Cross, while Huckaby won Gold in the banked slalom.
Today, Hernandez cruised through the semifinal, and fended off Kate Delson of the U.S. in the Big Final to win gold. When Hernandez crossed the finish line, she was overcome with emotion.” I'm very proud. After the finish line, I just wanted to see my daughter,” Hernandez told Olympics.com “But finally I will see my daughter right now. I'm very proud and it means a lot for me. That's why I cried and cried and cried on the podium.
Kate Delson’s silver medal is her first Paralympic medal. “This medal’s around my neck, but it doesn’t show all the people who held up my head throughout this moment to get here” Delson told NBC Sports. She’ll have another shot to medal in next Saturday’s banked slalom.
Rounding out the podium was Xinyu Wang of China, who won bronze after recovering from a crash early on in the big final. It’s her first medal in Para Snowboard Cross, besting her 9th place finish in the 2022 games.
Para Snow Cross results
🥇Cecile Hernandez - France
🥈Kate Delson - USA
🥉Xinyu Wang - China
Para Biathlon: Kendall Gretsch adds to her medal count
Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters seemed destined to another 1-2 finish in the 12.5km sitting biathlon, but one miss each on the shooting range made all the difference. Gretsch hung on to win bronze, while Masters finished just 11 seconds out of medal contention.
Yunji Kim took gold, her first medal of her Paralympic career, and Anja Wicker won silver, her second medal of the games.
In the standing category, Natalie Wilkie won Canada’s first gold medal of the games. She shot a perfect 20-for-20 in the shooting range to separate herself from the rest of the pack. She was joined on the podium by Zhiqing Zhao of China, and Oleksandra Kononova of Ukraine.
China’s Yue Wang won her second gold medal of the games in the vision impaired category. She finished nearly two minutes ahead of Simona Bubenickova of Czechia, and Germany’s Johanna Recktenwald.
Sitting Biathlon
🥇Yunji Kim - Republic of Korea
🥈Anja Wicker - Germany
🥉Kendall Gretsch - USA
Standing Biathlon
🥇Natalie Wilkie - Canada
🥈Zhiqing Zhao - China
🥉Oleksandra Kononova - Ukraine
Vision Impaired Biathlon
🥇Yue Wang - China
🥈Simona Bubenickova - Czechia
🥉Johanna Recktenwald - Germany
Keeping up with the Culxtured crew
Dani Aravich shot 15-for-15 in the first three rounds of shooting in today’s Para Biathlon. A missed target in her final trip to the range was all it took to fall out of medal contention. She finished in sixth place, for her best-ever finish in a Paralympic event. Her next appearance will be in the para cross country sprint on Tuesday, March 10th.
Brenna Huckaby was edged out of the Para Snowboard Cross semifinal by China’s Xinyu Wang, and Nianjia Hu. In the small final she finished behind Yanhong Gen of China for a 6th place finish. But have no fear, the vibes are still high for Huckaby. She’ll have another shot at a medal in Saturday’s banked slalom competition.
Conditions and broadcast disappoint
For most of the athletes competing in para snowboard cross, the qualifying run was their first chance down the course. Certain elements of the course were causing athletes to crash in training, leading officials to cancel the run for the day.
The qualification run was not broadcast. According to athletes on site, there was only a single camera covering the course. An NBC Sports spokesperson told Unculxtured that OBS, the Olympic Broadcasting Services, did not make the event available for live streaming.
Women’s events at the 2026 Paralympics resume at 4 AM Eastern time on the alpine slopes for the Super G competition.
