Jessica Gallagher wins bronze on the final day of the Sochi Paralympics, Picture: Jeff Crow Source: Supplied
VICTORIAN skier Jess Gallagher and her guide Christian Geiger have delivered Australia a double-shot of joy with a bronze medal on the final day of the Sochi Paralympics.
The visually impaired skier won bronze in the women's giant slalom at Rosa Khutor which adds to her bronze medal in the slalom from Vancouver in 2010.
Gallagher, 28, remains Australia's only female winter Paralympic medallist and means Australia will finish the Sochi Games with two bronze medals after Toby Kane's result in the men's super-combined on Friday.
"It's really nice, obviously after the past week the Australian team has had it's easy to see how difficult this sport is," said Gallagher, who was born in Geelong.
"It really is one tiny mistake and it's all over so I'm really grateful to put down two good runs and win a medal."
Gallagher is legally blind and has eight per cent vision - most of which is peripheral - and she relies on Geiger skiing in front of her to call the turns and lead her down safely.
To win the medal, she had to overcome dizziness which plagued her earlier this week and which was believed to be linked to a minor concussion she suffered during training last month.
In a case of history repeating, Australian coach Steve Graham was selected from his international counterparts to set the course for the final run of the day.
He was also responsible for setting the course for Cameron Rahles-Rahbula to win bronze on the final day of the Vancouver Games four years ago.
Gallagher's finishing time of 3mins 2.11secs was behind gold medallist Henrieta Farkasova from Slovakia with 2:48.63 and silver medallist Aleksandra Frantceva from Russia in 2:54.91.
"It was a nice course and allowed us to gain a little more speed and get into rhythm," Gallagher said.
"After feeling so ill on the slalom day it was nice to be out here in the sun and enjoy getting down as fast as we could.
"After the slalom we were really upset and I was feeling very ill so it was just about coming out here and having fun, because the day of the slalom I felt like I was going to pass out with every turn I was so dizzy."
Gallagher also represented Australia in athletics at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.
Geiger was an elite alpine skier on the national team before he was seriously injured in a car accident and turned his attention to guiding Australia's visually impaired athletes.
He said he was "relieved" to be standing on the podium with Gallagher.
"I said to Jess 'who would have thought the medal would come in GS (giant slalom) but it's been a long campaign and it's been interesting," he said.
"It's amazing what they can do from the visually impaired to the standing and sit-skiers, they're brilliant and to be honest (guide) Andy (Bor) and I call ourselves facilitators more than athletes because they're the athlete and we're just doing everything we can to help them get down the hill quickly."
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