Pentathlon Legends Shine Warmly in Blizzard-Laden Contest!
Warming temperatures are impacting the competition at the Winter Paralympics, and raising questions about the timing of the Games.
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — After winning bronze in his men’s super-G race earlier this week at the 2026 Paralympic Games, Andrew Kurka had his eyes set on another medal in the men’s giant slalom Friday in Cortina. So when he missed a gate early in his race, there was an audible gasp from the stands. Warming temperatures that reached 45 degrees, combined with a race schedule that placed Kurka later in the slate contributed to the miss.
Kurka said the snow was soft and that he wished race officials had salted the course earlier, a decision he thought impacted his run. "This is the most dangerous (giant slalom) course of the year," Kurka said. "I think the amount of finishers shows that as well.
" A total of 24 racers did not finish on Friday, March 13. Under different conditions, only six of the women’s giant slalom racers failed to finish the course on Thursday, March 12. The Paralympics giant slalom event consists of three classifications: vision impaired athletes went first, followed by the "standing" event.
Kurka competes with a monoski in the "sitting" classification, the last to race. "The first three gates were soft and not even raceworthy, which just made it really, really, really difficult to try to manage and hold onto any kind of lines, especially with speed," he said. Kurka said that prior to the 9 a.