Such was the quality of Hall\u2019s performance that Jules Segers of France, the next man out of the start gate, could not respond to the challenge, recording a combined time of 1m 32.29s, guaranteeing the Kiwi another Paralympic medal.<\/p>\n
There was another twist, however, as bronze turned to silver for Hall after the penultimate Para alpine skier out of the start gate, Italian Federico Pelizzari, lost the binding on his ski mid-race and recorded a DNF.<\/p>\n
Leader after the first run, Aleksei Bugaev held a commanding advantage of more than a second and a half, and he would not be denied gold. He crossed the finish line in a total time of 1m 28.55s for a comprehensive victory, reclaiming the title he last won in Sochi 2014.<\/p>\n
Yet for a visibly emotional Hall, it was another unforgettable moment in a remarkable career for the Outram-raised W\u0101naka-based Para alpine skier, who made his Paralympic debut at Torino 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in a dream. I don\u2019t know what just happened,\u201d said an ecstatic Hall, who has now claimed four Paralympic medals in the Men\u2019s Slalom Standing (two gold, one silver, one bronze).<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the first run, sitting in fourth, I just had to lay everything out there. I knew waking up to all that snow that I had to bring out that Taieri attitude that it is just an ordinary winter day. I just had to attack it and let it rip. It was years and years of experience and leaving nothing behind. Wow! What a way to come down and perform like that against such a strong field.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cIt feels so special to have so many family and friends in the crowd today, including my wife, Elitsa, and daughter, Gracelynn, who is seven and hopefully able to remember this for the rest of her life. This means so much to so many people, and to have so many family and friends here from near and far is amazing. I\u2019d like to say thanks to the whole team who have been on this journey with me. It has been incredible, but we got the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no words to describe what this means. I put a pounamu under my bib, which made me feel like all of New Zealand has been on this journey with me. I hope I\u2019ve continued that great legacy of Winter Paralympians, and to have brought home another medal is amazing. I love to thrive on that pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, in steady snowfall and poor visibility, Hall produced a vintage first run of 47.80s to sit in a strong fourth position \u2013 within 0.40 seconds of provisional bronze held by Segers of France.<\/p>\n
Bugaev led the field after the first run with an electric 45.39s, holding a massive 1.66-second advantage over Pelizzari. However, the big surprise came when pre-race favourite Arthur Bauchet of France made a huge error, leaving his gold medal hopes in tatters more than 10 seconds off the pace.<\/p>\n
New Zealand results at Milano Cortina 2026:<\/p>\n
Silver \u2013 Adam Hall \u2013 Men\u2019s Slalom Standing<\/p>\n
Fifth \u2013 Corey Peters \u2013 Men\u2019s Giant Slalom Sitting<\/p>\n
Fifth \u2013 Corey Peters \u2013 Men\u2019s Downhill Sitting<\/p>\n
Sixth \u2013 Corey Peters \u2013 Men\u2019s Super-G Sitting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Such was the quality of Hall\u2019s performance that Jules Segers of France, the next man out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2246,9980,74,1975,49638,6726,10712,2562,118962,32852,5904,6489,57236,42,26019,49539,20562,118961,3025,43,5106,94585,1974,7457,105664,11767,14907,61,40,38,41,39,23644,2963],"class_list":["post-331240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2246","tag-adam","tag-after","tag-at","tag-athlete","tag-become","tag-claiming","tag-claims","tag-cortina","tag-equal","tag-final","tag-games","tag-hall","tag-headlines","tag-medal","tag-medals","tag-mens","tag-milano","tag-most","tag-news","tag-olympics","tag-paralympic","tag-record","tag-silver","tag-slalom","tag-standing","tag-successful","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-winter","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}