Gold medal just the tonic for irrepressible Jepsen

Illness cast an ominous shadow over Mollie Jepsen's preparations for the Beijing Winter Paralympics. Now, though, the Canadian is celebrating with a gold medal around her neck after overcoming both her own health problems and the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 22-year-old won the women's downhill standing on Saturday to claim Canada's first gold of the Games, upgrading the bronze she won in the same event at Pyeongchang 2018. China's Zhang Mengqiu claimed silver, with Sweden's Ebba Aarsjoe taking bronze.

Jepsen was born missing fingers on her left hand, and had to persevere through plenty of other adversity on her way to glory.

Her preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics were hit when she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel illness. The diagnosis knocked her out of competition for an entire season, while she also had to deal with other health issues at the same time.

"It's been really tough. The season after 2018 I took a whole year off to deal with some health issues, so when I came back in January 2020 we only had about a month of racing before COVID-19 took over the circuit and ended it for us," said Jepsen.

She is now the proud owner of five Paralympic medals, including two gold, but rates her latest triumph as extra special considering all her ups and downs in recent years.

Jepsen also encountered some difficulties midway through her race on the tricky Yanqing course, but somehow managed to hold it together to reach the bottom.

"I'm a little bit overwhelmed and super happy now," she said.

"I just hope that I can build my confidence from here, keep a level head and just continue to hopefully ski the way I'm skiing," she added. "I spend my life doing it and it makes me really happy. As long as I'm happy, this is what I'm going to be spending my life doing."

Jepsen is loving life at the Games so far and heaped praise on the Paralympic Village and the stunning scenery in Yanqing.

"It's insane! In 2018 we had to take an hour-and-a-half-long bus ride to get to the hill every morning, and here you just kind of roll out of bed and get on the gondola," Jepsen said.

"It's absolutely beautiful and everything has been amazing. The venue is more than I ever thought it would be－just so many good things to say."