16-year-old, Liana France has become the youngest woman to represent Australia at a winter Paralympics, placing 15th in the women’s giant slalom standing on Thursday at the Milano Cortina Games.
A giant Australian flag — coloured pink — awaited France as she crossed the finish line, held by her family and friends. France had given her family some strict orders to create a custom pink flag with her face on it.
“I did kind of tell my parents, I was like, ‘You guys need, like, a flag with my face on it’. I made sure they had a good photo of my face and I was like; can it please be pink? Pink is the colour. Pink is definitely my favourite colour,” she said, as reported by Paralympics Australia..
“I just saw it and, oh my God, oh my God, it was such an unreal experience. All the support of my family and friends in the crowd, it is super, super crazy. I can’t even explain how grateful I am. Just seeing my face on the flag, really. It’s really great.”
France’s career in sport was inspired by her childhood love for Peppa Pig, as she’s explained previously. When she was two years old, she watched an episode titled ‘Snowy Mountain’, in which Peppa’s playgroup teacher becomes the kids’ ski instructor. France asked her parents to take her skiing for her birthday, where her love for the sport was sparked.
“At the bottom of the junior workshop skills checklist for black runs it said, ‘See you at the Olympics’,” Liana said. “Ever since, I wanted to complete the check list and go to the Olympics for skiing.”
After acquiring her impairment in a vehicle accident when she was 13, France set her sights on the Paralympics.
France wasn’t the only young Aussie woman to compete at the Milano Cortina Games on Thursday. Flag-bearer Georgia Gunew, 23, placed 11th in the vision-impaired event with guide Ethan Jackson.
Gunew has Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, a genetic condition that has caused her eyesight to gradually worsen since she was a teenager. Now legally blind, Gunew works with Jackson, who guides her down the mountain, reaching speeds of up to 100km per hour.
“We’ve practised this, we’ve done this for four years,” she said on Thursday.
“My body knows what to do, even if my mind’s feeling like a little bit more hectic than usual. I’m so happy we get to do it again in just a couple days (in the slalom).
“We can definitely give it a better crack, I’d say. There are some absolutely amazing skiers in my category, so we’re going to send it as best we can and see what we can do.”