CAMPERDOWN'S Cameron Rahles-Rahbula is considered one of Australia's best hopes of winning a medal at the Winter Paralympics in Canada, which started early today.
In a team without six-time gold medallist Michael Milton for the first time in seven Games, it's up to athletes likes Camperdown skier to help improve on Australia's 2006 medal tally.
Rahles-Rahbula is one of nine men and two women making up Australia's largest team for a Winter Paralympics.
His mother Elizabeth will be watching from her living room and is simply excited by the fact her son made it to the event after struggling to recover from an horrific injury last year.
Rahles-Rahbula suffered a bolting disc in his spine after helping a fellow skier into his chair and was left bed-ridden for months on end.
"He couldn't work, he couldn't go to the gym," Mrs Rahles-Rahbula said.
"They thought he'd never ski again. It was really bad.
"It's a miracle he even went and a miracle he can ski again, let alone walk again." The skier has clawed his way back to fitness and is favoured to do well.
His mother said she hoped he would win a medal, adding that his father, brother, sister-in-law and girlfriend would be in Canada to cheer him on.
But the Australian team faces a challenge with the departure of Milton - an amputee skier and a longtime figurehead for the team who retired from Winter Games competition after Turin in 2006 with a career haul of 11 medals.
In Milton's absence, the limelight will fall on the likes of Rahles-Rahbula, Toby Kane, Marty Mayberry and Jessica Gallagher, who represent the country's best medal hopes.
Australian chef de mission Michael Hartung said the team could improve on its 2006 performance in Vancouver.
"Our overall aim as an organisation is to achieve a top- 10 (medal table) finish.
"We know that's possible," Hartung said.
The form of Australia's best hopes has been very encouraging.
Rahles-Rabula claimed two gold medals, while fellow below knee amputee Kane picked up a silver and vision-impaired skier Gallagher won bronze at a World Cup meet in Austria in January.
Double below knee amputee Mayberry claimed gold and silver at the Aspen meet this week, the final competition before Vancouver.
The three men, all alpine skiers, are some of Australia's strongest medal chances, but will have to compete against each other in Vancouver.
Australian head coach Steve Graham, in Aspen with the team, said his squad was showing ominous form.
"Overall the team is performing brilliantly," he said.
"There's a good feeling in the group and everyone's skiing in the best form that they've been in for a long time," he said.
"They're all really relaxed too, which is a good sign."
-with AAP
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