AUSTRALIA – and Bonny Hills snowboarder Trent Milton – all but raised the roof when they kicked off the Winter Paralympics opening ceremony in Sochi.
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All political eyes might have been on Russian President Vladimir Putin when he entered the Fisht Stadium, but it was noise of 80,000 people that the 41-year-old Milton will remember.
“I can't describe what it was like to walk into a stadium full of close to 80,000 people and be the first team in,” he said from Sochi. “They screamed the roof of the place.”
Veteran alpine skier Cameron Rahles-Rahbula led the Aussies despite injuring his knee in a training crash earlier in the week.
He has been forced out of his first two race but hopes to compete later in the program.
“It was a bloody brave effort from Cameron,” Milton said. “My hat goes off to the man.
“He broke his only leg and he still carried the flag and walked the entire ceremony, unassisted. I hope his pain management was good.”
Rahles-Rahbula walked ahead of his team using crutches and the flag attached to a holder on his waist.
The Australian winter Paralympic team wore black armbands at the opening ceremony to remember snowboarder Matthew Robinson.
Robinson, a snowboarder on the national squad and world No.1 in his class, died last month after suffering neck and spinal injuries in a World Cup race in Spain.
“It was out of respect for an amazing man,” Milton said. “He is alive in my mind and his spirit will never be forgotten.”