A light programme in Pyeongchang meant the focus moved from the slopes to indoor arenas on Thursday, with para ice hockey and wheelchair curling the two main events.
The final of the para ice hockey will be between Canada and the USA. Canada, the 2006 gold medallists, thrashed the hosts, South Korea, 7-0 in the first semi-final, before the USA secured an impressive 10-1 victory against Italy.
Canada’s Liam Hickey, who also represented his country at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball, said: “To have one more game to focus on is a special feeling and we want to win it for everybody back home as well as for ourselves. Right now we are excited we have a chance to play for gold. The nerves will probably start to kick in for me on game day.”
Given their progress so far, Canada do not have much to be nervous about in Sunday’s final. They have won every match in South Korea and are yet to concede a goal. Three members of the team will be bidding to make it their second gold, having taken part in the victory in Turin 12 years ago.
The Canadians will also be competing in the wheelchair curling semi-finals. They join China, South Korea and Norway in the last four. Britain finished seventh in the table, winning five and losing six of their matches.
Norway secured the final spot in the semi-finals after two tense victories on the last day of round-robin matches – defeating the USA 5-4 and then coming back from 6-3 down to edge out Slovakia 7-6 in a final end in which the stones had to be measured to determine the winner. The Norwegians go on to play South Korea in Friday’s semi-finals, while Canada meet China.
Meanwhile there seems little prospect of Russia returning to the Paralympian fold any time soon. Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, said Russia “had progressed a lot” but the IPC would not change its stance on the Russian Paralympic Committee, which was banned in 2016 following revelations of a mass doping programme.
“The situation is very clear because we have agreed reinstatement criteria with the Russian Paralympic Committee,” Parsons said. “We cannot right after these Games, for example, lift the suspension – they have to meet these criteria.”
Thirty Russian athletes are competing in South Korea under the team banner of Neutral Paralympic Athletes. Collectively they are second in the medal table.
South Korea’s skiing federation has banned for life two male mogul skiers who competed at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after two female team-mates complained of being sexually harassed at a World Cup event.
A federation official said interviews with athletes and coaches confirmed that Choi Jae-woo and Kim Ji-hyun harassed and assaulted the women for refusing to have drinks with them on 3 March, while they were at the Lake Tazawa resort in Japan.
