“Can’t believe it” – France’s Maxime Montaggioni banked slalom gold on debut at Beijing Paralympics
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Maxime Montaggioni
World champion Maxime Montaggioni had to wait for eight long years to make his Paralympic debut which however ended in a disappointing 10th place in the snowboard cross on Monday. The French rider went on his dream five days later taking the men’s banked slalom SB-UL gold medal at Beijing 2022.
The 32-year-old finished the first run in second place, 0.01 second behind China’s Lijia Ji. But his second was the fastest among the 34 runs in his class at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.
“I can’t believe it. It’s incredible. I knew that I could go for a medal but a gold medal is incredible,” said Montaggioni, who missed PyeongChang 2018 due to a knee injury. “The Chinese are very strong, so I didn’t expect to be first, especially after training where I was second or third. So I knew that it would be very hard to go for this medal.”
“Had nothing to lose at the gate”
Montaggioni finished on top of the podium in the SB-UL category event to take home gold for his country. On the other hand, Ji finished with the silver medal this time followed by his compatriot Yonggang Zhu – who repeated his result from the snowboard cross race.
The French Paralympian shed light on his mindset during the race on Chinese soil.
“At the gate, I had nothing to lose. It was 0.01 and I couldn’t think that I will lose [by so little],” he said about what was going through his mind. “I had to do everything I could to leave the competition with no regrets. So I was free and strong, and it paid off. So for me it was the perfect situation.”
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Sachin Arora
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