The one-legged skier was in silver medal position after his second run with a combined time of two minutes and 29.07 seconds.

But the south-west Victorian had to wait for four competitors to race down the mountain.

One of the remaining four was multi-Paralympic champion Gerd Schonfelder of Germany.

By the time the 29-year-old German arm amputee had finished his gold medal run, Rahles-Rahbula had slipped to sixth spot.

However, the upbeat Australian quickly found the positives in his top-10 result. He was the fastest one-legged skier on the day as the five athletes ahead of him were all on two skis.

“I think I did pretty well. It was always going to be a battle on one ski up against those other guys. They’ve got better balance than us in those rough conditions,’’ he said.

“But I was really happy with the first run. The way the course was set for the second, it was a little bit rounder, which meant some of those bumps were a little more costly.’’

Fellow Australian Toby Kane (NSW) posted a combined time of 2:31.03 minutes to claim 10th.

Austria’s Rob Meusburger and Vincent Gauthier-Manuel (France) rounded out the podium places behind Schonfelder.

Rahles-Rahbula next takes on the three medallists in the men’s downhill.

He has also got assignments in the upcoming super-G and super combined events at Vancouver.

“You can’t take a lot out of it. It doesn’t mean anything bad to be behind those guys heading into the downhill. If anything, I’m pretty happy to be up there on the scoreboard,’’ Rahles-Rahbula said.

‘‘Tomorrow it’s a different day with a completely different course and we’re hearing it’s supposed to be very cold overnight, so they’ll be able to iron out some of those holes and the snow will firm up.’’

Countrymen Marty Mayberry (NSW) and Kane are the other big Australian hopes in the downhill.

‘‘We’ve been racing every day and haven’t had too much time to talk about (competing against each other).

'That’s a good thing because if you ‘over think’ it too much you’ll prepare four or five days too early and that’s too much of a mental challenge. We’ll all be pretty fresh tomorrow and it’ll be good to get on the speed skis,’’ Rahles-Rahbula said.

As of yesterday, Australia’s medal tally stood at two bronze medals.

Rahles-Rahbula collected bronze in the men’s standing slalom and Jessica Gallagher came third in the women’s vision impaired slalom.