Australia's Toby Kane has laid the perfect foundations for what could be his final winter Paralympic Games with an IPC World Cup gold medal.
Kane on Thursday won the men's standing super-combined at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup finals in Tarvisio, Italy, just before the Games kick off in Sochi on March 7.
The 27-year-old Melbourne athlete edged out the world No.1 Alexey Bugaev of Russia by 0.01 of a second to claim his first ever World Cup gold medal in his 12-year career.
The win gives the Australian team a significant boost as they prepare to fly into the Russian city early next week.
"I'm ecstatic. It's not so much about Sochi right now - I've been trying to do this for the last 10 years and never quite got over the line," said Kane, who is currently ranked 14 in the world for super-combined.
"I've led races before, I've been beaten by very, very small margins but I've never made it there.
"So in what is most probably my last World Cup, I've had my first win.
"It's probably the largest monkey I've ever got off my back."
The medal adds to the bronze Kane secured in the men's downhill on Wednesday.
Kane, who's indicated he may retire after the Sochi Games, won a bronze in the super-G as a 19-year-old at his first Games in Torino 2006, but was unable to back that up with a medal in Vancouver 2010.
He says the win was not only a life achievement but also doubled as a tribute to teammate Matthew Robinson, who died last week after sustaining serious neck and spinal injuries at the IPC Snowboarding World Cup Final.
Robinson, 28, was not part of the Australian team for Sochi but had been training and competing with the squad throughout the northern hemisphere's winter.
"We can't bring Matty back and we can't replace that incredible loss that his team, the snowboard team and us, and his family and friends are feeling," Kane said.
"But we can go out there every day and do our absolute best to honour his memory."
The squad wore sky-blue armbands for the competition as a mark of respect to Robinson.
Fellow teammate Cameron Rahles-Rahbula did not finish after missing a gate in the super-G, while Melissa Perrine did not compete due to illness.
Australia will take six alpine skiers, two sighted guides and, for the first time, three snowboarders to Sochi.
They include alpine skiing medal contender Mitchell Gourley, who has won a gold and three silver medals this World Cup season.
Also competing will be Jessica Gallagher, who at the 2010 Vancouver Games became the first Australian woman to win a Paralympic Games medal.
