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For the first time since medals started being awarded on Saturday, no Canadians reached the podium Thursday at the Paralympic Games in northern Italy. This was mostly due to a lack of opportunity as Day 6 featured only one medal event, the women’s giant slalom.
Canada’s Michaela Gosselin finished eighth while Florence Carrier was 14th in the women’s standing category. There were no Canadians in the sitting or vision-impaired divisions.
That leaves Canada with 10 medals — one gold, three silver, six bronze — heading into a big Day 7.
Canadians to watch Friday
Biathlon: Natalie Wilkie, Brittany Hudak and Mark Arendz in the sprint pursuit
The final day of biathlon competition features Wilkie going for her 11th Paralympic medal, and fourth of these Games, in the women’s standing category. The 25-year-old from Salmon Arm, B.C., won a gold and a silver in biathlon last weekend before adding a bronze in the cross-country sprint on Tuesday. She skipped Wednesday’s 10-kilometre cross-country event in which Hudak placed third for her fourth career Paralympic medal (all bronze).
Arendz will try for his 15th Paralympic medal, and third of these Games, in the men’s standing category. The 36-year-old from Hartsville, P.E.I., earned a silver in the 12.5 km biathlon last weekend and took bronze in Wednesday’s 10K cross-country race.
The pursuit begins with a qualifying round to determine a leader and how much of a head start they get over each other athlete in the final. For Wilkie and Hudak’s women’s standing category, qualifying is at 5:35 a.m. ET and the final goes at 8:10 a.m. ET. Arendz’s races will follow immediately after.
After winning gold and silver medals on the weekend, Natalie Wilkie of Salmon Arm, B.C., won a bronze medal on Tuesday in the women’s cross-country sprint standing classic final at Milano Cortina 2026.
Alpine skiing: Kalle Eriksson and his guide Sierra Smith in the men’s giant slalom
Eriksson and Smith will attempt to win their third medal of the Games in the vision-impaired category. They took silver in the downhill and bronze in the super-G and missed the podium in the combined by just 0.05 seconds.
Eriksson lost his vision in 2021 when, not wearing sunglasses or goggles on a ski hill in Sweden, the intense sunlight reflecting off the snow, in his words, “burned a hole right through my retina,” much like what can happen by looking directly at a solar eclipse. Smith skis a little bit ahead and helps her partner navigate the course via a two-way headset built into their helmets.
Racing begins at 4 a.m. ET, and the second and deciding run goes at 8 a.m.
Snowboarding: Tyler Turner in the men’s banked slalom
Turner, who took bronze in this event in 2022, is going for his fourth career Paralympic medal and his second of these Games. The 2022 snowboard cross champion was awarded a bronze in that event last weekend after the judges ruled that the third-place finisher was responsible for a collision that caused Turner to crash during the four-man final.
Racing begins at 4 a.m. ET, and the second and final run starts at 6 a.m. Turner, 37, competes in the SB-LL1 category, which is third on the docket.
Para ice hockey: Canada vs. China in the semifinals
After crushing its three Group B opponents by a combined score of 26-1, Canada could get more of a challenge from a Chinese team that finished second in the United States-dominated Group A. China lost 7-1 to the reigning Paralympic and world champions but outscored its two other foes 23-1.
Canada fell to the U.S. in the last two Paralympic gold-medal games as well as last year’s world championship in Buffalo, where China lost the bronze game by one goal to Czechia for the third straight year. The Chinese defeated South Korea for the bronze at the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing.
The Canada-China game starts at 2:05 p.m. ET. The U.S. faces Czechia in the other semi at 9:35 a.m. The gold and bronze games are Sunday.
Wheelchair curling: Canada vs. South Korea in the semifinals
After clinching a playoff berth on Tuesday by defeating reigning Paralympic and world champion China and 2022 Paralympic silver medallist Sweden in back-to-back games, Canada bolstered its gold-medal hopes today by beating South Korea and the United States to become the first team ever to go a perfect 9-0 in the preliminary round.
The Canadians will face the fourth-place South Koreans again in the semifinals at 5:05 a.m. ET. The other semi pits No. 2 China vs. No. 3 Sweden. The bronze-medal game takes place later in the day, at 1:35 p.m., and the gold game is on Saturday.
After becoming the first rink to sweep mixed wheelchair curling round-robin play at the Paralympics, Canadian skip Mark Ideson praises the entire team for their effort and says they’re ready for the medal rounds.
How to watch
Along with daily afternoon and evening broadcasts on the CBC TV network, you can stream all of the action from the Milan-Cortina Games live and on demand exclusively on the free CBC Gem app. Gem is also available on your desktop web browser.
For a full listing of what’s on each day, see the CBC Paralympics streaming and broadcast schedule.
Visit CBC’s Milan-Cortina Paralympics website for the latest stories, schedules, in-depth features and on-demand highlights.
Here’s more on all the ways you can follow the Games with CBC.
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