Canada’s first gold medal at the 2026 Iciness Paralympics came courtesy of standout para-nordic skier Natalie Wilkie, who delivered a dominant efficiency within the girls’s standing para-biathlon on Sunday, March 8. The 24-300 and sixty five days-used from Salmon Arm, British Columbia, crossed the produce line in 33 minutes 1.8 seconds, finishing extra than half of a minute sooner than China’s Zhao Zhiqing (33:33.5). Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova secured bronze in 33:37.9.
The victory marked Wilkie’s fourth career Paralympic gold medal and ninth general, reinforcing her speak as one among the sector’s most successful athletes in para-nordic snowboarding. Only a day earlier, she had already claimed silver within the girls’s standing breeze, adding to Canada’s early medal tally at the Video games. Here is all the issues to snatch about Canada’s sorrowful-nation skier Natalie Wilkie.
A rising star since her teenage debut
Wilkie first burst onto the international stage at the 2018 Iciness Paralympics, the set up she changed into the youngest member of the Canadian crew at impartial 17.
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Remarkably, she had most productive made her international Nordic snowboarding debut months earlier at a World Cup event in Canmore, Alberta, finishing fourth in all her sorrowful-nation races. In PyeongChang, nevertheless, she timid extra skilled opponents by successful gold within the girls’s middle-distance standing event, adopted by bronze within the breeze and silver within the blended relay.
Her debut earned her the Finest Paralympic Debut by a Female Athlete honour at the Canadian Paralympic Sport Awards, as infamous by the Global paralympic committee.
Overcoming a lifestyles-changing accident
Wilkie’s go to the rostrum also has a tragic section. In 2016, she lost four fingers on her left hand in a woodworking class accident in school.
“I changed into planing a portion of wood. The wood kicked motivate so my hand went into the machine, and I changed into stuck for an hour,” she recalled her experience, quoted on the paralympic’s committees legitimate site.
Despite the injury, Wilkie returned to aggressive snowboarding and even competed at the nationwide stage in ready-bodied sorrowful-nation snowboarding in Canada, continuing to make her career within the game.
Dominating the sector stage
Since her Paralympic step forward, Wilkie has remained a fixed drive in international para-nordic snowboarding. At the 2022 Iciness Paralympics, she restful four extra medals: two gold, one silver, and one bronze.
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Her momentum persevered within the 2025–26 season, the set up she obtained six races on the Para Biathlon World Cup circuit, taking pictures the Crystal Globe as general champion within the girls’s standing category for the most foremost time in her career.
On the para sorrowful-nation circuit that identical season, she added five silver medals and one bronze at early World Cup stops.
Stable performances at world championships
Wilkie has also impressed on the sector championship stage. In the 2024–25 season, she finished 2d within the final girls’s standing biathlon World Cup rankings, obtained four World Cup races, and secured two gold medals at the Para Biathlon World Championships.
In sorrowful-nation occasions that season, she reached the rostrum in all five international races, together with two silver medals at the sector championships. She also placed 2d within the girls’s standing breeze at the 2025 World Nordic Snowboarding Championships, the set up para occasions were included for the most foremost time.
Life past the slopes
Born on January 21, 2001, Wilkie is from Salmon Arm, British Columbia. Her sister, Isabelle, will be a aggressive sorrowful-nation skier and competed at the 2018 British Columbia Iciness Video games.
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Out of doors sport, Wilkie enjoys painting portraits and in 2023 obtained the King Clancy Award from the Canadian Foundation for Bodily Disabled Individuals for her achievements and advocacy.
On her instagram page, she on the total shares updates together with her nearly 4,000 followers. She changed into also featured in lululemon’s Team Canada advert campaign.
Throughout two old Paralympic Iciness Video games, 2018 and 2022 Wilkie had already amassed seven medals (three gold, two silver, and two bronze). Along with her most contemporary triumph in Milan-Cortina, she continues to expand one among basically the most impressive medal hauls in para-nordic snowboarding.
