Sawt Falasteen - French Paralympian Bauchet's golden end to a 'tough' day

However, that is just what happened to the French skier as he pulled off a remarkable comeback to seize the fourth gold medal -- and 10th overall -- of his Paralympic career at the men's alpine combined standing event on Tuesday in Cortina.

"I think it's one of my favourite gold medals," the 25-year-old told reporters after winning France's first gold in alpine skiing at the Milan-Cortina Games.

"Because it was hard to believe I could do it in the first place.

"And on top of that, my family is here. It's the first Paralympic gold medal I've won in front of them," Bauchet, who has a neurological condition called spastic paraplegia, which causes severe spasms in his legs, added.

The omens looked ill for Bauchet earlier in the day as he came in two seconds behind the overall leader Aleksei Bugaev in the super-G, but a barnstorming performance in the slalom catapaulted him to the top of the podium in the combined event.

When the Russian crashed to the ground in his slalom run, Bauchet lept to his feet in the leader's box and let out a guttural roar of celebration.

Four years ago in Beijing, Bauchet won three gold medals and, ahead of the 2026 Games, had set himself the ambitious target of netting five golds in the Dolomites.

"During the long hours spent between the super-G and the slalom (during Tuesday's combined event), I honestly thought to myself that these weren't the Games I had hoped for," Bauchet said after claiming silver in last weekend's downhill and crashing out of Monday's super-G.

"I had pretty much given up on the gold medal, but then (Bugaev's fall) changed everything.

"It just goes to show that in a split second, everything can change."

- 'Really noisy' -

Despite his glittering career, the Saint Tropez-born skier could be forgiven for his pessimism considering the 24 hours he had endured prior to his victory.

On Monday, he fell during the super-G event and tore a ligament in his hand. But that was just the beginning of his travails.

"Yesterday was a tough day," he said. "I thought to myself, 'I'm not doing the podium', so I'll be able to go straight to recovery. Well, that's not how it turned out.

"I went home, got changed, and we went to the polyclinic. It wasn't very well organised, but once I got there, I had an ultrasound, an X-ray and an MRI scan."

Bauchet revealed he was so tired by then that he fell asleep during the scan.

"I think I spent an hour in the MRI scanner. I fell asleep," he said. "I don't know if you've ever had an MRI scan, but it's really noisy!"

He added the day had taught him a valuable lesson as it proved "nothing is a foregone conclusion, for the better or for the worse".

Despite being on cloud nine and with "the adrenaline of the medal" masking the pain, Bauchet revealed his injury will nonetheless require surgery after the Games.

"I'm having an operation next week," he said. "But in the meantime, I still have two medals to go for."

Bauchet will compete in the giant slalom on Friday, before ending his stay in Cortina with the slalom on the final day of the Games -- March 15.

O.Farraj--SF-PST