Australian Paralympian Toby Kane has won his first World Cup medal of the season just over a week out from the Sochi Games.
Kane secured bronze in the men's downhill standing class on Wednesday at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup finals in Tarvisio, Italy.
He completed the course 3.61 seconds slower than Austrian gold medallist Markus Salcher.
But the Torino 2006 Paralympic bronze medallist was only 0.7s shy of silver medallist Matthias Lanzinger, also from Austria.
While happy with his form, the 27-year-old was quick to talk down any inflated expectations leading into his third Games after a less-than-ideal experience in Vancouver.
At the 2010 Games, Kane clocked two 10th-place finishes and recorded two DNFs.
"I think a medal is good at any time - it's good for your confidence and good to know you're skiing quick," he said.
"In saying that, I won three medals at World Cup finals in the lead-up to Vancouver and we all know how that went.
"It's a shallow field and there are countries that have decided not to come here in the lead-up to Sochi. So it is what it is and you can only really beat who's here."
Fellow Australian Cameron Rahles-Rahbula finished in eighth place in Italy.
Head coach Steve Graham said the competition doubled as perfect pre-Sochi training given the recent lack of good snow in Europe.
"A very fast and straight course suited the guys well and helped get them back up to speed after really three weeks of only training slalom and the occasional giant slalom session," he said.
Both Kane and Rahles-Rahbula will compete in Thursday's super-combined event.
Vision-impaired skier Melissa Perrine was forced to pull out midway through the downhill competition due to illness.
