PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA – Momoka Muraoka got her second medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics on Sunday when she took bronze in the Alpine skiing super-G sitting category.
The 21-year-old finished in a disability-factored time of 1 minute, 36.10 seconds, 1.34 seconds behind Germany’s Anna Schaffelhuber who won her seventh Paralympic gold at Jeongseon Alpine Centre.
Austria’s Claudia Loesch (1:35.71) earned silver.
Muraoka got a scare when a bump in the snow sent her flying, but she managed to keep her balance and prevent a repeat of the 2014 Sochi Games, where she failed to cross the finish line.
“I thought I was a goner, but fortunately I managed to hold on,” she said. “I wasn’t able to finish four years ago, so I really wanted to this time around.”
Muraoka captured Japan’s first medal of the games on Saturday with a silver in downhill, also behind Schaffelhuber. She said she is looking to go one better when she competes in the giant slalom, slalom and super combined over the remainder of the 10-day games.
“There’s only one medal I don’t have now. I need to win against myself, to surpass my limits,” she said.
To do so, she will need to defeat Schaffelhuber, who is looking for a repeat of her Sochi sweep of all five gold medals in the sitting category. The German appeared to be in good form in her second win of the games.
“Today was a little easier, I had the gold medal from yesterday,” Schaffelhuber said. “The next two races will be the most difficult for me, Anna-Lena Forster (of Germany) is very strong in the slalom and she will be more of a favorite.”
The skiers get a rest day on Monday, followed by super combined on Tuesday.
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