Luchini and Perathoner clinch home gold in Banked Slalom as Delson and Elliott win for USA

Para Snowboard reached its conclusion at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games on Friday, a day earlier than originally scheduled due to the weather, with the Banked Slalom.

Unlike in the World Cup where Banked Slalom now entails head-to-head racing, the medals were decided by the best times across two runs on a highly technical course at Cortina Para Snowboard Park. With the snow holding up well over the day, the second runs saw slightly quicker times with athletes pushing harder to make it onto the podium. 

Jacopo Luchini (ITA) delighted the home fans as he sprang a surprise to take the Men’s Upper Limb title. The 35-year-old had finished fourth at PyeongChang 2018 and fifth at Beijing 2022, but produced a stunning first run of 56.28 that would not be beaten on the second descent as he claimed a first Paralympic medal at his third Games.

Pengyao Wang (CHN) rose from fifth on the first run to second place, finishing 0.34 behind Luchini who actually clocked the second quickest time on the second run despite it being a victory lap. Zihao Jiang, second after the first run, fell on his second descent as he took bronze.

SBX gold medalist Lijia Ji was going well on his first run when he went the wrong side of a gate. He was third fastest on run two but that was only good enough for fourth. Aron Fahrni (SUI) was fifth after his SBX bronze ahead of defending champion Maxime Montaggioni (FRA) with less than a second separating the top six.

For Luchini, this was "a dream come true" after suffering a micro fracture of a metatarsal in his left foot in training. "That moment I understood that something was wrong with my foot and for sure I was thinking, 'I don't know if I can compete.'" he recalled. "But at least I did it. I'm so happy.

"I want to say thank you to all my staff, all the Italian team. All the doctors and physiotherapists because we had a lot of hard work.

"Every morning and at night doing therapy and especially this morning because we had inspection at seven. So it was crazy and I don't know how to say thank you to all the staff because the work they put in is amazing.

"Yesterday we tried snowboarding. The feeling wasn't that good, but this morning I feel good. And so I had a really, really good first run, and this is the most important. I probably had a lot of mistakes, but it's just because I wasn't that focused, probably, not because of my foot. Because in that moment you can feel nothing, it's just adrenaline and you can do everything you want.

"It means everything. You know, you have a lot of pressure. You want to be good in front of all your friends, your parents, and all the Italian team. It wasn't so easy to arrive here.

"But anyway, when you're here, I try not to think that much, stay focused on what you have to do. If I have to choose to win a gold medal in the three Paralympics that I had, for sure, I will choose this one."

Emanuel Perathoner (ITA) completed the SBX-Banked Slalom double in Men’s Lower Limb 2 with another dominant display. The two-time Winter Olympian was over a second quicker than the rest on his first run, clocking 55.10, but went even faster on his second with victory already assured.

The 39-year-old went down in 54.28, over two seconds quicker than his nearest rival Fabrice von Gruenigen. The Swiss claimed his first Paralympic medal with Ben Tudhope taking bronze to add to his SBX silver.

"It's amazing to win again in front of the home crowd," said Perathoner. "And I was super happy with my second run. I already knew when I was on top that I won the race. But having that run, doing an almost perfect second run was even better.

On winning two golds, he added, "I hoped that I would achieve that. I tried and trained for that, and so now I'm super happy that all the last four years, all the work that I did, was worth it."

Elliott and Delson secure USA double

Noah Elliott (USA) regained his LL1 title in style by clocking the quickest times on both runs. After his close second in SBX, Elliott was just over a second faster than the rest on the first run. Daichi Oguri almost took over at the top of the timesheets on his second run, but was just eight-hundredths outside Elliott’s time.

On his victory lap, Elliott eclipsed his own time by two-hundredths with 58.94 and took his Paralympic medal tally to four. Wu Zhongwei (CHN), who pipped Elliott for SBX gold on Sunday, was just out of the medals in fourth.

"I'm so, so proud," said Elliott. "It was so hard for me not to cry coming across that finish line. I've worked so hard, and this is my 'Redemption Games'. I had such a bad injury in 2022. I had my femur bone come through my amputated leg, and so I actually competed like that. I'm finally healthy again.

"I couldn't be more proud to come back after a surgery, get back on the grind, work hard, set those goals in the gym, work out, and just get better at snowboarding and show up here. And that's why these medals mean so much to me."

Kate Delson (USA) went one better than her Snowboard Cross silver by taking LL2 gold. Lisa Bunschoten-Vos (NED), fourth at the midway point, put down a superb second run to take over from Delson by two-tenths of a second. But the 20-year-old raised her level to clock 1:02.99 for a winning margin of just over half a second before being mobbed in congratulation by her fellow competitors.

Bunschoten-Vos was rewarded for her decision to skip to SBX and concentrate on the Banked Slalom as she claimed her first Paralympic medal. Defending champion Brenna Huckaby (USA) was unable to improve on her first run and had to settle for bronze. SBX champion Cécile Hernandez (FRA) was fourth with the 51-year-old just missing out on the podium on her final Paralympic outing.

"It feels unreal to have a gold medal," said Delson. "I didn't know if gold is my colour, I like silver! It feels great and to have my family and friends here means everything.

"I was just stoked to be here, I think it's such a fun course. I got to get a medal with my teammate (Huckaby), one of my best friends in the world, that's unreal."

On being overtaken by Bunschoten-Vos before her second descent, she said, "I knew I had to put it down, knowing I was no longer in first. I knew the course was running faster, so I just had to fix one line and do what I did.

"I was stoked I was able to put it down and had fun doing it and seeing all the girls at the bottom cheering for me. So many of them have been in this sport for so much longer than me, some of them came in when I came in. I'm just so proud of each and every one of them."