| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Born | September 17, 1999 West Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Height | 4 ft 8 in (142 cm) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Canada |
| Sport | Para-alpine skiing |
| Coached by | Jean-Sebastien Labrie |
Medal record | |
Mollie Jepsen (born September 17, 1999) is a Canadian alpine skier.
Jepsen was born in West Vancouver, British Columbia without several fingers on her left hand. She learned to ski by the age of two and also took gymnastics classes. [1] Growing up, she attended West Vancouver Secondary which she graduated from in 2017. [2]
She was influenced to start competitive skiing after watching the 2010 Winter Olympics and joined the Whistler Mountain Ski Club. [3] However, when she was 13 she tore her right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and again when she was 15. [1]
Despite this, she was selected to compete with Team Canada during the 2018–19 season. [4] Upon returning to British Columbia after partaking in Team Canada's summer training camp in Chile, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. [5] She qualified for the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where she won her first gold medal in the super combined event. [6] She also won a silver medal in the slalom and two bronze medals in downhill and giant slalom. [7]
She was named the Female Para-Alpine Athlete of the Year at the Audi 2018 Canadian Ski Racing Awards [8] and the Best Female Athlete at the 2018 Canadian Paralympic Sport Awards. [9]
She won Canada's first gold, the gold medal in the women's downhill standing event at the 2022 Winter Paralympics held in Beijing, China. [10] [11] She also won silver in the giant slalom and was honoured to be chosen to be Canada's flag carrier in the closing ceremonies. [12]
Australia has competed in every Winter Paralympics. In 1976, the first Games, Australia's sole competitor was Ron Finneran, but he was not an official entrant. In 1980, Kyrra Grunnsund and Peter Rickards became the first official competitors, in alpine and cross-country skiing. The number of Australian athletes increased to three, five, five and six at the next four games, respectively, and all of the athletes were alpine skiers. The participation decreased to four in 1998 and climbed back up to six in 2002. Australia won its first Winter Paralympic medals in 1992, and has medalled at every games since then. All of the medals have been won in alpine skiing.
The alpine skiing competition of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics will be held at Whistler, British Columbia. The events were due to be held between 13 March, and 21 March 2010. Events scheduled for 13 March, however, were postponed due to weather conditions – specifically, low visibility. The snowboard cross event was a demonstration sport until 2014.
Viviane Forest is a Canadian multi-sport Paralympic medallist. She was born and raised in Quebec, and currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.
Alana Jane Nichols is an American Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and alpine skier.
Cameron Rahles-Rahbula is a former Paralympic alpine skier from Australia. He won two bronze medals at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. He represented Australia in four Paralympics, stating with the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City and the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino. He did not compete in any events at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi due to knee and ankle injuries sustained during the warm up for the downhill event of the Games but carried the Australian flag in the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony. He also won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2004 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Wildschönau, Austria, and a gold and a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships in Jeongseon, Korea. He retired after the Sochi Games.
Melissa Perrine is a B2 classified visually impaired para-alpine skier from Australia. She has competed at the four Winter Paralympics from 2010 to 2022. At the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, she won three gold, one silver and one bronze medals. At the 2018 Winter Paralympics, she won two bronze medals.
Mitchell Gourley is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier who competed for Australia in the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined events at four Winter Paralympics - 2010 to 2022. He was Australian team co-captain with Joany Badenhorst at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. At the 2022 Winter Paralympics, he and Melissa Perrine carried the Australian flag in the opening ceremony. At the 2017 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy he won the gold medal in the men's Super Combined Standing.
Andy Bor is an Australian former ski coach and sighted guide for visually impaired skiers. He was a coach at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino, and was Melissa Perrine's guide skier at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver and 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi.
Karolina Wisniewska is a para-alpine standing skier. Born in Warsaw, she moved to Canada when she was 5 years old where she then took up skiing as a form of physical therapy for her cerebral palsy. Over the course of her skiing career, she won eight total Paralympic medals for skiing, and 18 medals at International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cups. At the 2002 Winter Paralympics, she earned four medals, the most ever earned by a Canadian para-alpine skier at a single Games. Wisniewska retired from the sport for a second time in May 2012 following an injury in 2011 that resulted in her missing most of the 2011/2012 skiing season.
Claudia Lösch is a successful Austrian Paralympian and alpine monoskier. She won gold medals in the slalom and super slalom at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. She also won a silver medal at the Alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Paralympics – Women's super-G.
Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber is a German para-alpine skier. At the 2014 Winter Paralympics she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.
Anna-Lena Forster is a German para-alpine skier who competed at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Paralympics winning six medals.
Menna Fitzpatrick MBE is a British alpine skier. She is visually impaired having only 5% vision and formerly skied with guide Jennifer Kehoe until 2021. They competed at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang in March 2018 where they took four medals, including a gold in the slalom, making Fitzpatrick Team GB's most decorated Winter Paralympian.
Alana Ramsay is a Canadian paralympic alpine skier, born in Calgary, Alberta. Ramsay, who was born with cerebral palsy due to a stroke at birth, started skiing at age 6. On the Para-Alpine World Cup circuit in 2015/16, she landed her first podium. In both 2016 and 2017, Ramsay was named Canadian Ski Racing Female Para Alpine Athlete of the Year. Ramsay has competed in 3 Paralympic games thus far, she won bronze medals at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Paralympics in both the super-G and super combined events. In the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics, Ramsay won two more bronze medals, in the super combined standing and super-G standing events.
Alexis Guimond is an American-born Canadian male Paralympic alpine skier.
Martha Hill is an American para-alpine skier. She represented the United States at the 1984 Winter Paralympics and at the 1988 Winter Paralympics in alpine skiing.
Ebba Årsjö is a Swedish para alpine skier who competed at the 2022 Winter Paralympics.
Zhang Mengqiu is a Chinese para-alpine skier. She won gold medals in the super-G and giant slalom events, and silver medals in the downhill, slalom and super combined standing events at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China.
Katie Combaluzier is a Canadian para alpine skier who competed at the 2022 Winter Paralympics.
Natasha de Troyer is a visually impaired Belgian alpine skier. She represented Belgium in Paralympic Alpine skiing at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games, 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, and the World Championships, where she won one silver and two bronze medals.
