Outgoing para alpine skiier Melissa Perrine feels primed to attack her pet event in Saturday's slalom after kicking off her fourth and final Winter Paralympics with a sixth-place finish in the women's vision impaired giant slalom.
Perrine and debutant Rae Anderson, who finished 10th in the standing category, started their respective campaigns on Friday in Yanqing.
Four-time Winter Paralympian Perrine and sighted guide Bobbi Kelly were sixth after a first run of 1:02.13, 8.05 seconds off leader Veronika Aigner and 4.09 seconds back from bronze.
But the Australian was unable to make up enough time in her second run to reach the podium.
Perrine and Kelly had to recover from respective back injuries and minimal competition and training opportunities over the past two years.
"I feel proud. We've had a tough season and we started off this season in some really bad shape, basically," Perrine said.
"To fight to where we are now in a discipline that we've not done a lot of this year, I couldn't be happier, honestly.
"We set out and did exactly what we wanted to do. We put two solid runs out there. I couldn't be happier."
Perrine claimed bronze in slalom and super combined in PyeongChang and will look to close her Winter Paralympics career with a third career medal, and Australia's first para alpine skiing medal in Beijing, on Saturday.
"Oh hell yeah, most definitely (Friday's performance gives us confidence). We love slalom," she said.
"There's something seriously satisfying about bashing some plastic gates, hey.
"So we're looking forward to slalom, we're looking forward to doing the exact same thing we did today: getting two epic runs down there and having the time of our lives and ending my Paralympic career on a high note."
Meanwhile Anderson, who has cerebral palsy but is also asthmatic, was thrilled to crack the top 10 on debut amid cold conditions and poor air quality.
Anderson, who competed in javelin and discus at Rio before switching to winter sports, was 11th after her first run and snuck up to 10th.
"Stoked. I finished. At the end of the day, that was the main goal, to become a dual Paralympian," Anderson said.
"It wasn't the worst finish either, looking at everyone coming down. Top 10 would be incredible. We are stoked with the outcome today and probably exceeded a lot of our expectations, from coaching and me included.
"To see what I could do at this sort of level, with the cerebral palsy, the cold's not the best for it. Finishing that race, my whole left side's spasming.
"The cold makes it a lot more difficult as well as the conditions. My spasticity is very much affected by the conditions, so the iciness of the course and the ruts certainly cause a lot of spasms as well."
Anderson will back up on Saturday in the women's standing slalom.
