Renè De Silvestro takes first title in Giant Slalom as Aigner and Bauchet win more gold

Renè De Silvestro gave more joy to the home fans at Cortina d’Ampezzo with victory in the Men’s Giant Slalom Sitting on Friday. The 29-year-old Italian had won his first medal of the Games, Combined bronze on Tuesday, after two fourth-place finishes, but made it to the center of the podium this time.

De Silvestro had a blistering first run that left him more than eight-tenths of a second clear of the rest. Niels de Langen (NED) was his closest challenger with teammate Jeroen Kampschreur suffering a late crash when ahead on the clock. 

It was de Langen who put down an excellent second run, more than two seconds quicker than Jesper Pedersen (NOR), to pile the pressure on the home favourite. But De Silvestro responded, going down just over a quarter of a second slower than the Dutchman for a winning margin of 0.57 and a first Paralympic title.

“I have no words," admitted a stunned De Silvestro before expressing his pride at his achievement. "In front of all the crowd and my people, my family, my friends, my coaches, I’m very very very happy. The gold medal finally came to me."

The surface persuaded the organizers to put the top 15 athletes from the first run before the rest on the second run in all three categories. But De Silvestro was happy with the conditions, saying, “It’s spring snow so I like it, but it was a little bit bumpy so difficult to manage. I tried to push, I made some mistakes, but I was thinking when I was in the air, ‘I’m not out, I’m not out, I have to go.’ And I did it.”

Johannes Aigner (AUT) matched sister Veronika in claiming his third gold of these Paralympic Winter Games in the Giant Slalom Vision Impaired. But it was a close-run thing with Giacomo Bertagnolli (ITA; guide Andrea Ravelli) leading after the first run.

After trailing by 0.46 at the midway stage, Aigner and guide Nico Haberl put down an excellent second run to put the pressure on the home favourite. Bertagnolli looked on track for gold after the first two time checks, but he was late in the line approaching the closing turns and an advantage of 0.27 became a deficit of 0.34 at the finish.

Michal Golas (POL; Kacper Walas) took bronze just ahead of Kalle Ericsson (CAN; Sierra Smith) who also made a mistake on the bottom section. Combined silver medallist Neil Simpson (GBR; Rob Poth) was going superbly well on the first run, but went the wrong side of a gate carrying just too much speed off a roller to be able to readjust in time.

“I think on the second run, the slope conditions were better because they salted it on top,” said Aigner. “The course was actually good and we tried our best. We were very nervous in the finish area. It was very close but, all in all, it was a good and we made it.”

Arthur Bauchet (FRA) won the Giant Slalom Standing to take his second gold in Cortina and deny Robin Cuche (SUI) a third title. Cuche, who completed the speed double in Monday’s Super-G, trailed by less than three-tenths after the first run.

The Swiss looked to have put down a fine second run, overtaking Aleksei Bugaev (RUS) to guarantee himself at least silver, but Bauchet was flying at the top to extend his lead. His winning margin was a massive 1.96 seconds at the end to take his career tally to five Paralympic gold medals.

"I'm feeling so great," beamed Bauchet. "It’s incredible to win the Giant Slalom. I was DNF in 2018 and bronze was not the medal I hoped for in 2022, so to take gold here with my family is really great."

The 25-year-old now has five Winter Paralympic gold medals, and he spoke about perhaps competing in the summer version at LA 2028 in Para Cycling: "I prefer ski, obviously. I always want to push my limit and in Alpine Skiing we miss a lot of racing. It's a lot of training and not a lot of races. Between March and December it's only training, and I needed some competition.  

"I found cycling, and it's really great. It is difficult because I train a lot, but it's so great, and after the Games I will go back on my bicycle and try to perform in World Cup."

Before he can return to cycling training, Bauchet has the small matter of Sunday's Slalom which rounds out Alpine Skiing in Cortina. On Saturday is the Women's Slalom.