And again the precious metal came for a member of the Aigner family: the visually impaired Johannes Aigner carved with his guide Matteo Fleischmann to slalom silver. The 16-year-old from Lower Austria was the first Austrian athlete to win five Paralympic Alpine medals in one place.
The Paralympic Team Austria ended the games in Beijing with a total of 13 medals. Five times gold, five times silver and three times bronze brought the ÖPC team sixth place in the medal ranking.
“It was not to be expected”
Thus the improbable podium series of Aigner and Fleischmann continued on the final day. After a close duel with the Italian Giacomo Bertagnolli, he even missed gold by just 0.23 seconds. “I noticed that the program went to the substance here, especially in the second round it was difficult in terms of strength. That’s why it wasn’t as fluid today as in the giant slalom, but Bertagnolli also managed a pretty perfect run,” said Aigner, who lives with eight percent visual acuity and is now leaving China with two golds, two silvers and one bronze.
“We flew to China with the aim of winning a medal. It was not to be expected that we would win like that here. Downhill gold was definitely decisive because it was completely unexpected, after that everything went much easier”, said the student from Gloggnitz. He should also carry the Austrian flag at the closing ceremony in the “Vogelnest” stadium.
Dad is building a medal cabinet
Aigner has also cleared up a lot when it comes to the Philharmonic, after all there is 12,000 euros for gold, 10,000 euros for silver and 8,000 euros for bronze. After his return, Aigner is allowed to take another week’s vacation before going back to school. “Then I have to make sure that school goes on as much as at the Paralympics. Let’s see if that works out like that,” laughed Aigner, for whom Papa Christian will build a closet for his medals.
Source: Nachrichten
