Australian team on Games high

AUSTRALIAN Paralympics chef de mission Nick Dean wanted at least three medals at the PyeongChang Winter Games and he’s got it with four days remaining.

The country sits 14th on the medal table after winning its first gold since Salt Lake City in 2002, where there were significantly more medals offered in alpine skiing than subsequent games.

And after Simon Patmore triumphed in snowboard cross this week, alpine skier Melissa Perrine has clinched two bronze medals.

Australia has beaten its medal counts at the Games in Turin in 2006 (one silver, one bronze) and Sochi four years ago (two bronze), despite the injury withdrawal of its co-captain and world No.2 snowboarder Joany Badenhorst.

Australia needs one more medal to level with the Vancouver 2010 team and still has ski slalom and snowboard banked slalom to do so.

“It is successful, by any measure,” Dean said.

“I was very guarded before the Games, as you have to be.

“I was looking for any medal, any colour. We’ve exceeded those expectations.”

As in many Paralympic teams, there are some athletes who have overcome major challenges just to be there, including shark attack victim Sean Pollard and Shaun Pianta, who lost his vision after contracting a superbug.

Dean has attributed the Australian Games success to a strong team environment.

“It’s really difficult with a specialist team of individuals but they really do have a team atmosphere. It’s a credit to everyone involved,” he said.

“It might seem a bit glib to say that in the view of [individual] success, but I would have said that regardless of the result.”