From Olympic crash to Paralympic gold, the two lives of snowboarder Perathoner

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, March 8 - Italian snowboarder Emanuel Perathoner, whose career as an able‑bodied athlete ended after a serious training accident in 2021, reinvented himself as a Paralympic competitor — and on Sunday won his first gold medal in snowboard cross on home snow.

The crash marked a dramatic turning point for the 39‑year‑old athlete from South Tyrol, a northern Italian region near the Austrian border. It prevented Perathoner, who had competed at the Winter Olympics in 2014 and 2018, from attending the Beijing 2022 Games and pushed him to race as an athlete with a physical impairment. 

The Milano Cortina Winter Games were a major opportunity for him — and he delivered.

“My motto is: never give up, with or without a disability. And I can say this having passed from an Olympic career to a Paralympic one. Sport can do everything,” he told journalists after the race in sun‑lit Cortina.

“The track was perfect today. It’s amazing to win here in front of my crowd and my family.” 

Perathoner suffered a fractured tibial plateau and underwent a replacement of his left knee, which is now locked at 35–40 degrees, preventing further bending. 

His sporting future appeared over. Instead, after a year of rehabilitation, he returned to snowboarding and began competing in Para events.

“In snowboard cross, with a knee that only bends to 40 degrees, everything is more difficult,” said his physiotherapist Paolo Di Pietro.

“There are compensations with the back and hip, both in sport and daily life. He trains specifically for these adaptations.”

Perathoner said the switch from the Olympic to the Paralympic world was less difficult than expected.

“The most important thing was finding the will to compete again,” he said.

The Milano