Cooper scores ski silvers, and bruises, in Austria

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 620, 23 January 1996, Page 3

Cooper scores ski silvers, and bruises, in Austria

Patrick Cooper has added more ski race medals to his collection, having picked up two silver medals at the 1996 World Alpine Disabled Ski Championships in Lech Austria. Cooper won silver in the men's downhill, raced in hard and fast conditions on Saturday 13 January. He was ranked in the top five in the field after earlier training runs. He finished less than a second behind his arch rival, Hans Burn of Switzerland. It was his first world championship medal in the downhill. Later, Cooper took one of the heaviest falls of his life just three gates from the finish of the Super G course. Cooper, who was hoping to add the Super G world title to his already impressive international record, narrowly missed hitting a building after smashing through safety fences with such force that his artificial ski leg was shattered Team manager Janine Elliot said Cooper was lucky to escape with just

a few bruises and had time to get his leg repaired as they had a rest day the following day. In the giant slalom he finished just outside the medals in fourth place after a blistering second run. A disappointing first run meant he was only able to lift himself from fifth to fourth in the final placings. Treacherous conditions in the mens slalom saw disappointment for Cooper and his team mates. More than 40 per cent of competitors didn't finish their first run, including Cooper who fell during what was shaping up to be a great first run. After the race he was nursing a badly strained knee on his stump leg. The team finished the competition with four silver and two bronze medals. Patrick was a double gold medalist at the Lillehammer Paralympics in 1994 and is ranked as one of the top disabled skiers in the world. He has one leg amputated below the knee.