WEEKLY WHINE

2018 GoobNet Women’s Winter Paralympic Championship: Results

Here are the results of the first GoobNet Women’s Winter Paralympic Championship, determining the best female Winter Paralympian of all time. This tournament was a thrilling, highly enjoyable competition, and our hosts truly put on a wonderful show for us. The hosts were selected from amongst the Paralympic host cities of past and present. The regional semifinals and finals were held in Lillehammer, Norway; Nagano, Japan; Turin, Italy; and Vancouver, BC, Canada. The final two rounds were held at Stoke Mandeville, England, UK.

The tournament, as with the Paralympic Games themselves, was full of surprises. Unfancied alpine skier Rachael Battersby of New Zealand got past Swedish cross country skier Desiree Johansson in the first round, an event that tossed bracket pools around the world into turmoil. Two first round upsets in the Lillehammer Regional bumped alpine skier Danja Haslacher and sledge racer Lahja Haemaelaeinen from the tournament. Sledge racing fans had thrown their support behind Haemaelaeinen early on, but Martina Altenberger’s sweep of the LW6/8 alpine events in 1988 proved too much.

But only one competitor seeded seventh or lower, Canadian wheelchair curler Sonja Gaudet, was able to reach the Swift Sixteen. As we reached the latter phases, the dominance of the highest seeded competitors became more and more clear, until we arrived in Stoke Mandeville with all four of the top seeds.

A dramatic semifinal between two German athletes, alpine skier Reinhild Möller and nordic skier Verena Bentele, was for many the highlight of the tournament. Bentele’s unforgettable performance at the 2010 Winter Paralympics, during which she won every individual event for visually impaired skiers in both cross country skiing and biathlon, almost lifted her into the final. Möller’s impressive body of work, including four straight gold medals in both the downhill and the slalom, proved to be enough.

But in the final, there was no stopping Norway’s Ragnhild Myklebust. Over a fourteen year career, Myklebust dominated the sitting category of cross country skiing, with wins in every individual event held between 1988 to 2002. For good measure, she also added a few relay golds, and even some in sledge racing and biathlon. Ragnhild Myklebust, by some distance, has earned the title of greatest female Winter Paralympian, and we offer her our hearty congratulations.

So, all that is left to do is to thank all of our participating Paralympians, all of our host cities, and, most importantly, every single volunteer who helped make sure that everyone was fully informed of all of the latest happenings. We could not have held this tournament without all of you. We will see all of you at the reception, where Ragnhild, Reinhild, and all the other competitors, even those who do not have hild in their names, will be celebrating.

LILLEHAMMER REGIONAL

NAGANO REGIONAL

TURIN REGIONAL

VANCOUVER REGIONAL

STOKE MANDEVILLE FINAL ROUNDS