Brian McKeever and Graham Nishikawa came back from all odds after McKeever went down in Wednesday's sprint, then surged ahead for gold -- his first with Nishikawa alone, second of the Sochi Paralympics, and ninth total. "That was stressful,” McKeever told Cross Country Canada. “Once the cuss words were out, the only thing you can do is get back up and race."
Canada’s Mark Arendz battled through brutal race conditions on Tuesday to capture bronze in the men’s 12.5-kilometre standing at the Sochi Paralympics, just days after taking silver in his first competition of the Games. In doing so, Arendz, 24, became the first Canadian to win two Paralympic biathlon medals.
Canadian Brian McKeever skied to his eighth gold medal and first of the 2014 Winter Paralympics on Monday, winning the visually impaired 20 k classic with the help of two guides, Erik Carleton and Graham Nishikawa -- a first for the 34-year-old Paralympic champion.
Mark Arendz fired his name into the history books on Saturday as the first Canadian ever to win a silver medal in biathlon at the Paralympic Winter Games.
The 2014 Winter Paralympics officially kick off Friday with the Opening Ceremony in Sochi, Russia, and the Canadian Para-Nordic team is raring to be one of the most dominant teams at the Games, shooting for third in the overall medal count.
With less than a year of nordic experience, Tatyana McFadden -- a three-time Summer Paralympian with 10 Paralympic medals and a marathon Grand Slam to her name -- has her heart set on Sochi. "I have to just be relaxed and go with the transitions," she says. "When it comes time for me to put my skis on the snow, I have to remember everything I've learned ... and ski as fast as I can and hopefully make people proud.”
Selected to head up the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Program just three years ago, John Farra is already thinking medals for his team at the Sochi Paralympics in March, and believes they'll be on par with the Russians by the 2018 Games.