Thus, the paralympic games of Karmøy accounted for a large part of Norway’s medal tally at the Olympics. He was a very natural choice as Norway’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
On the final day of the match, the 22-year-old was unapproachable in the slalom race, with clear best times in both rounds. His most dangerous competitor Jeroen Kampschreuer trailed 0.39 seconds after half-time, but the Netherlands were eliminated in the final round.
Pedersen was 6.08 seconds ahead of Niels de Langen of the Netherlands, while René De Silvestro of Italy in the bronze spot was beaten by 7.34 seconds. Despite having secured gold, Pedersen went 2.38 seconds faster than his closest competitor in the final round.
After three gold and two silver medals at the World Cup at home, Pedersen naturally traveled to the Paralympics with expectations, but he surpassed them and became king of the game. After starting with silver downhill, he picked up gold in both super-G, super combination, giant slalom and downhill.
Paralympic King
Four gold and one silver put him at the top of the individual medal list. Oksana Masters took multiple medals with sevens, but the American parallel runner took “only” three gold (and four silver).
Paraski shooter Oksana Shyshkova from Ukraine won three golds and two silvers, while four other athletes won three golds. Pedersen was alone to manage four.
While Pedersen made nearly clean desks in class to sit on, there was a simpler placement for Norwegian participants in the class to stand. Marcus Grasto Nilsson finished with 19th place on the slopes. He raced from 27th place after the first lap in a race won by Frenchman Arthur Bauchet.
Two of Norway’s seven medals
Norway finished in 8th place on the medal list at the Paralympics with four gold, two silver and one bronze. Almost all of the medals were won by Jesper Saltvik Pedersen.
On Sunday, there was bronze in the open relay in a parallel race, where Kjartan Haugen went two stages, Vilde Nilsen and Thomas Oxaal one each. Earlier in the match, Vilde Nilsen won silver in the women’s cross-country sprint.
China became the best country in the country with 18 gold, 20 silver and 22 bronze.
