North Van's Woolstencroft golden in women's standing slalom
She's won Paralympic gold before, but never in front of a flag-waving home crowd.
That made Monday's gold-medal run in the women's standing slalom event at Whistler extra special for North Vancouver Paralympian Lauren Woolstencroft, 28.
“During my first run I didn’t hear anything. I was super focused and I don’t think it was as loud. But for the second run, when I got to the six last gates, it was getting pretty loud. All I could think of was to get through it. I was really happy to (win) in front of my family and friends,” Woolstencroft said in a Canadian Paralympic Committee release.
Her winning time of 1:51.97 was nearly seven seconds ahead of the Germany's Andrea Rothfuss (1:58.35), who took silver. Woolstencroft's Canadian teammate Karolina Wisniewska (1:58.84) finished with bronze.
Added Woolstencroft in a release: “Slalom definitely hasn’t been my best event this year at all and having Karolina on the podium with me today makes this win even more special. I just want to ski my best and I think I did that today so I’m really happy. I also think that skiing my best can put me on the podium so I hope I can keep this going.”
Woolstencroft, an Alberta native now living in North Vancouver, won gold in both super-G and slalom and a bronze in giant slalom at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
At the Games in Torino, Italy four years later she grabbed gold in giant slalom and silver in super-G.
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