Kimberley’s Kalle Eriksson and his guide Sierra Smith have won three medals in the Milano-Cortina Paralympics.
This is the Paralympic debut for the duo, who started things out with a silver medal on Saturday in the men’s visually impaired downhill, hitting a time of 1.18.11 and marking the first medal for Canada of the event.
They then followed this up with a bronze medal in the men’s visually impaired Super-G for their second podium in two events.
Eriksson has been a para-athlete since 2022, after he started losing his vision from a rare instance of solar retinopathy while he was skiing on a glacier in Sweden.
READ MORE: Kimberley’s Kalle Eriksson to represent Canada at Paralympic Winter Games
He and Smith, a former elite ski racer from Ottawa, communicate through a two-way headset as they ski down their runs. They’ve worked together since 2022 and together have so far won 22 medals on the World Cup circuit.
Eriksson told The Bulletin that winning two medals early in on in the event, in a sense, relieved some initial pressure, but also drove them to keep pushing.
“I really got into myself with wanting to do it again and wanting the gold and all of a sudden all of Canada was watching us and so I think that definitely changed things a little bit, but that’s okay, we still did phenomenally over the last couple days.”
In addition to experiencing the feeling of winning their first Paralympic medals, the duo also experienced coming up just short of other podium finishes in the event, including taking fourth in visually impaired giant slalom, finishing a mere 0.12 seconds off of third. They also had a fourth-place finish in alpine combined.
“Very proud that we were able to be that competitive and I mean, it’s such good ski racing at the end of the day, with everyone within a second of each other,” he added. “Today I missed out by 12 hundredths of a second — I can’t even start and stop my stopwatch on my phone that quickly, which is insane.
“It makes for really good, exciting competition. It makes it so much harder being in fourth when it’s like that, because you know you could have been there. Like, if I would have just stretched my arm out a little bit further going across the finish I could have been on the podium. So in that sense it’s hard, but also great that we’re so much in the mix and that the men’s racing right now is so tight and so dialled amongst the top 10 guys that it’s great.”
Eriksson said the overall experience has been “unreal” and they already are looking forward to the 2030 Paralympics in France to do it all over again. While they’re no strangers to elite competition, having had so much success on the World Cup circuit, this elevated stage was a different experience, and they were more in the limelight than they have been before.
“I’ve learned a lot over the last little bit,” Eriksson said. “It’s great that the sport is being showcased more than it normally is on the World Cup circuit, but I think that my key takeaway from this, going into the next games, is I need to be as mentally ready, as physically ready, as everything ready as I can be, because the last two weeks have been a lot.
“I’m going to be leaving here very tired and just dead. We’ve been skiing for two weeks straight now, with very little time off and just the pressure of wanting to do good in the races and the media, there’s just a lot going on. It’s part of the experience and it’s exciting, but I’ve learned a lot for the next games.”
Eriksson said having his family there, in addition to the droves of Canadian supporters, meant the world to him and Smith.
“It’s awesome coming down to the finish and seeing them standing there, even if the results aren’t what I’d hoped. I know that they’re proud of how Sierra and I have done no matter what,” he said.
“It’s great to see the amount of space that Canada has taken up in the bleachers, I think that we probably have the biggest cheering squad out of all of the nations and they’re always very loud and vocal and show a lot of pride in our country. It’s been super cool.”
Next up, they will return to Kimberley, Eriksson’s home town, to compete in the Canadian and U.S. National Para Alpine Championships from March 23 to 27.
Hosted by Dreadnaught Ski Racing, there will be a homecoming held on Thursday ahead of the event, welcoming them and all the other Para Alpine athletes.
“I’m really looking forward to coming back to Kimberley, not only just to go home and be back in my apartment hanging out,” Eriksson said. “And then obviously Nationals are still a very big deal and it’s an event I look forward to every year, but it will just be nice to be off the map a little bit racing and not really feeling that pressure, just going out there and having fun with it, not worrying about results, racing against the rest of Canada.
“It will be beautiful spring skiing and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Eriksson and Smith finished off their Paralympic debut with a bronze medal in men’s visually impaired slalom on Sunday.
“Wrapping up the games on high note feels great,” Eriksson said. “Happy that I could finally get back on the box on the final day.”
This initial Paralympic showing is still fresh, in fact this interview was conducted ahead of their final race, but Eriksson said he and Sierra are already feeling more motivated than ever to keep on pushing themselves forward.
This is only his fourth year racing and he feels like he’s just getting started.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the basics, building on what I have right now. I think that four years from now I’ll be in a really good spot in my skiing and I’m looking forward toa reset on the last quad and starting from square one.”
Be sure to head to Kimberley Alpine Resort later this month to cheer on Eriksson, Smith and all the other Para Alpine athletes.
The duo contributed three medals to Canada’s total of 15 at the Paralympic Winter Games.
READ MORE: Dreadnaught Ski Racing to host homecoming event ahead of Para Alpine Championships