Paralympics: Japanese Para athletes end Milan Cortina Games with 4 medals

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Mar 16 (Kyodo/APP): Japanese alpine sit skier Takeshi Suzuki won bronze in the men’s slalom on Sunday, the final day of competition at the Milan Cortina Paralympic Games, bringing Japan’s medal haul to four.

The medal is the first in 12 years for the 37-year-old Suzuki, who has previously won three including a gold in the men’s slalom sitting in Sochi in 2014.

A delighted Suzuki said he was “glad” to have won a medal after two unsuccessful games. “The first thing that crossed my mind was my wife’s face and those of my son and daughter, and everyone who has supported me.”

Suzuki clinched bronze as athletes powered through snowfall and fog at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Center, a rarity for the Paralympic events at Cortina d’Ampezzo. Suzuki said the poor visibility proved a blessing, as it allowed him to produce riskier skiing.

Suzuki’s Japanese alpine skiing stablemate, seven-time Paralympian Taiki Morii, also competed, finishing fourth.

It marked the first time since the 2002 Salt Lake City Games that the 45-year-old Morii, who has won seven medals, failed to reach the podium. But the veteran skier took the result positively.

“I thought if I had to lose to someone, I’d want it to be Takeshi,” he said of Suzuki. “In that sense, this was the best loss I could hope for.”

Ahead of the Milan Cortina Games, Morii had begun to talk of the current season as his last purely as an athlete, as he looks to begin training the next generation alongside competing.

In cross-country skiing in Tesero, Japan’s Taiki Kawayoke ended sixth in the men’s 20-kilometer interval start free standing, while compatriot Yoshihiro Nitta, competing in an eighth consecutive winter Paralympics, came 20th.

Kawayoke, the gold medal winner in the men’s long distance standing classic at Beijing in 2022, struggled to find his winning form in Milan Cortina, and goes home empty-handed.

With Suzuki’s bronze, Japan’s medal total ended at four. In 2022 Beijing Games, Japan won seven medals, including four gold.

The 44-member Japanese team has gone without any gold medals at a winter Paralympics for the first time since Salt Lake City in 2002.