Josh Hanlon has clinched Australia's first medal in para downhill skiing in eight years after winning bronze at the Para World Cup in Austria.
The Australian para alpine skier was just 2.26 seconds off first-placed Jesper Pederson of Norway to clinch third on the second day of competition at Saalbach.
US para skier Andrew Kurka, 2018 Paralympics downhill sitting champion, trailed Pedersen by 0.54 seconds to snare silver.
Hanlon's downhill sitting breakthrough is Australia's first podium finish in the discipline since two-time Paralympic medallist Melissa Perrine also won bronze at the 2017 World Cup finals in PyeongChang.
Vying for his second Paralympics appearance after making his debut at the 2022 Beijing Games, the NSW product's third-place finish marks 50 days out from the 2026 Milano-Cortina Paralympics.
Hanlon, who has both legs amputated below the knee and his dominant right hand amputated below the wrist, had kicked off his campaign in Austria by finishing seventh for his then-best-ever result before clinching third.
"The snow was super hard and fast - the race hill is really cool with lots of challenging terrain," Hanlon said.
"I'm absolutely stoked with the podium result. I honestly didn't expect it at all.
"I didn't quite execute the harder parts of the course how I wanted, but I'm happy that was just enough (for a medal)."
Hanlon made his Paralympics debut less than three years after the former footballer, a GWS academy player, first took on sit-skiing following amputations due to a severe bacterial infection.
The 28-year-old was named 2022 Paralympics Australia rookie of the year after finishing sixth in the slalom sitting and 11th in the giant slalom sitting.
