Peters proud to 'hang with young guns'

New Zealand's Corey Peters defied age and his pandemic-decimated build-up to the Beijing Winter Paralympics to make his experience count in sensational fashion on Saturday.

Having being absent from international competition for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peters made a brilliant comeback at the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on Saturday to win the men's sitting downhill title, much to the surprise of many observers.

In his first official run since the 2019 world championships, Peters clocked 1 minute 16.73 seconds to claim gold at the National Alpine Skiing Centre in Beijing's Yanqing district.

The triumph also saw Peters earn New Zealand's first medal of the Beijing Paralympics, and completed a perfect set of Winter Paralympic medals for the 38-year-old, who won silver at Sochi 2014 and then bronze at Pyeongchang 2018.

Racing against a field mostly comprising skiers born after 1990, Peters took pride in prevailing against his younger rivals following a tough pandemic-affected build-up to Beijing 2022.

"I put down probably the run of my life, and it showed on the scoreboard," said Peters, who used to be a rugby player and a motocross enthusiast until an accident during a motocross race severely damaged his spinal cord in September 2009.

"The talk of the town is Jeroen (Kampschreur) and Jesper (Pedersen). Those young guns are in their early 20s, so for me to show them I've still got some pace and can still do it, it's a good feeling.

"I can still hang with the young guys and maybe you get better with age in the downhill."

Pedersen of Norway, who is 16 years younger than Peters, was 1.26 seconds back in second, with another veteran, Japan's six-time Paralympian Taiki Morii, third.

The downhill course in Yanqing is steep and technical, lending itself to Peters' experience and precision skiing. Eleven out of the 25 sitting skiers who qualified for the final failed to finish the course, underscoring the Kiwi's incredible achievement.

Even Peters himself crashed twice in his training runs on the Yanqing track, but found his best form when it mattered most.

Now it's time to catch up on some sleep after days of anxiety, Peters confessed.

"I've been nervous for the past three or four days. I haven't really been sleeping properly. For me, downhill is pretty gnarly. We are going quite fast and if it goes wrong, it goes really wrong," said Peters, who added that Beijing 2022 would be likely his last Paralympics.