Paralympics: Japan’s snowboarder Kosuda bungles medal in chaotic final

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Mar 9 (Kyodo/APP): Japan’s top para snowboarder Junta Kosuda let a first Paralympic medal slip from his grasp Sunday, after a crash into another boarder in a chaotic men’s snowboard cross final saw him disciplined.

Kosuda, the 2025 banked slalom world champion, has evolved from a Beijing newcomer in 2022 to one of Japan’s top contenders at the Milan Cortina Paralympic Winter Games. Expectations have piled on as ongoing injury recovery difficulties put alpine skiing multi-medalist Momoka Muraoka’s performance into doubt.

His place on the podium initially seemed assured. He came back from the brink during the snowboard cross semifinal, cruising into first and edging ahead of teammate Daichi Oguri in the same bracket.

But, faced with the same scenario in the final, he appeared to let his nerves get the better of him. A risky attempt to overtake Canada’s Tyler Turner, the event’s Beijing 2022 gold medalist, ended in disaster as both men hit the snow.

“It was all down to my mistake and I feel terrible about it,” Kosuda said later. “I wanted to try to pass one, two people at once like in the semifinal but I misjudged the other boarder’s positioning.”

And while Kosuda crossed the finish line to come third, a pall hung over Cortina Para Snowboard Park. Kosuda stood a short distance from his competitors, including a clearly disappointed Turner, when the decision was made to rank the Japanese athlete in last — in fourth place — due to the incident.

The loss for the 35-year-old represents a rare setback in a career defined by unrelenting drive for self-improvement and the transformative power of sports.

Kosuda’s right leg was amputated from above the knee in 2012, after he caused a traffic accident while working as a driver for a moving company.

The accident initially left him despondent and depressed. “I had absolutely no desire to do anything,” he has said.

That was, until the summer of 2015, when he went to an event to try out sports with prosthetic legs. He showed up late, but he was captivated, even quitting smoking that day.

His development since has been exceptional. Kosuda competed in Para athletics events at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games held in 2021, coming seventh in the long jump, before coming seventh and 10th in the snowboard cross and banked slalom in Beijing 2022 just months later.

“I’m glad I lost my leg. It allowed me to meet great people, and gave me something I could devote myself to,” he has said. Life has also granted Kosuda another great role to give his whole self to since Beijing, as he became a father to a girl and boy.

The snowboarder will get another shot at a medal Saturday, when he competes in the banked slalom.