Corey Peters ecstatic after adding silver to his gold medal

Corey Peters is happy to have exceeded his expectations by mining his second medal of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics in as many days. 

New Zealand's 38-year-old, a role model for fellow Para Alpine skiers, claimed silver in the men's super-G sitting a day after winning gold in the downhill at the Yanqing National Alpine Ski Centre.

Peters is scheduled to participate in more events and would like to complete the full set of medals at Beijing. 

"I think I've exceeded my own expectations. I wouldn't be happy just with the one gold to be fair, but now the silver, and who knows in the giant slalom, maybe we'll get the bronze and get the full set,” he hoped.

"I'm just ecstatic, lost for words. I couldn't ask for a better start to be able to get two medals in two days. To be fair, I probably would have been happy just with the gold, but to go away with the silver, it's just icing on the cake,“ said Peters, who won silver at Sochi 2014 and bronze in PyeongChang 2018.

Challenging course

The course has a very technical steep pitch as well as a final flat which requires some quick skiing, keeping the skis flat, and running as fast as possible. Peters' experience and precision skiing worked in his favour.

"It all comes at you pretty quick when you're racing. Maybe when I entered the top of the perch, I wasn't exactly where I wanted to be, but I probably have to re-watch it and analyse it.

"I felt pretty good on about 95 per cent of the course, just a couple of small little errors, and at this level — it was under half a second, four-tenths — so you make those little minor mistakes and you can lose positions really easily."

International non-participation was no hindrance

Having been unable to participate in most of the international competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peters is banking on his experience, self-belief and self-confidence to succeed in Beijing.

"I'm just banking on previous knowledge and experience. I've been doing it for 11 years now. It's just having that self-belief and self-confidence.

"My phone's just been going crazy. I've been inundated with the kindest messages from friends and family,” said Peters of the reaction from home to his gold medal.

"It's obviously really nice, really welcoming, and it's good to see that support coming back from my country.”

Peters now has time to rest before taking part in his final event -  the giant slalom.