Collie’s Shaun Pianta made history last week, becoming one of Western Australia’s first ever Winter Paralympians.
Pianta, along with Bunbury’s Sean Pollard, were the first two West Australians picked to compete for Australia at the Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Pianta said competing at the Winter Paralympics was ‘one of the most incredible experiences of [his] life’.
“I didn’t really have any expectations of what it was going to be like but I was blown away by how big and how amazing it was,” he said.
“Generally at our races, we don’t have any family or friends there and there’s not even much of a crowd so when you come through the finish line and you can hear everyone screaming and cheering, it really means a lot.
“The grandstands were pretty much full, which I didn’t expect.
“It just made the atmosphere even better.”
Pianta competed in two events at the Games, finishing 14th overall in the giant slalom and recording a DNF in the slalom.
He said the torn ACL he suffered in January limited his ability to compete but that he was still proud to have made it.
“I didn’t compete that well. My skiing wasn’t the greatest because I didn’t have much training in the lead-up to it,” he said.
“I only found out I was going to go a few days beforehand. I was just really happy to make it and to compete.
“The knee held up fine … it was just the lack of training in the lead-up to the events which really let me down.”
Pianta said even though he wasn’t completely pleased with his performances, he was humbled by the support he’d received both in PyeongChang and back home.
“I just want to say thanks to everyone for all their support and well-wishes... I really felt the support from back home,” he said.
Pianta said that now he was back in Collie, he was planning to have surgery on his knee and hopefully take a holiday before getting back into training ahead of the World Championships next year.
“The whole experience was really cool and it would be amazing to do it again,” he said.
“But it’ll be hard work.”
