For someone who has a fear of going down hills, Alberta's Derek Zaplotinsky hasn't been stopped from making the climb to the top of the podium at the Canada Winter Games. The 29-year-old sit-skier won his first gold medal in Tuesday's 800-metre para event after placing second in Monday's 2.5-kilometre sit-ski race.
"It feels great. I'm pretty happy," said Zaplotinsky after his Tuesday race at the Otway Nordic Centre.
He's only been at the sport for a year, so the icy slopes can seem daunting.
"The steering on this (sit-ski) is not very good, but I'm getting better at it," he said.
It helped that with the warm weather, the snow on the sprint course was quite soft.
"It's a little slower, but I kind of like conditions like this. It's easier for control," he said.
During the race he said it helped having coaches hollering from the sideline, reminding him of his newly-learned technique.
"In the middle of the race I kind of throw everything out and I have to remind myself to do it the right way," he said.
He first came to the sport as an off-season way to cross train.
"I do competitive hand cycling in summer so I needed something in winter," said Zaplotinsky, who has competed in that sport for three years and trains out of Edmonton.
He placed fifth at the national cycling championships in 2014.
"I find this harder. It takes more strength," he said. "I find this is the toughest sport I've ever tried."
He used to compete in motocross, too, but at 21 an injury sidelined him and injured his spinal cord.
But he never lost his love for competition.
"I'm very competitive," he said, noting he was very disappointed after Monday's silver-medal finish, but the sprint turned that around.
Zaplotinsky exhales when asked to reflect on the progress he's made over the course of a year, calling it "rewarding."
"I started at the beginning of the year not having much strength or anything and I ended up going to world championships at the end of last month," said Zaplotinsky, who placed 17th.
Zaplotinsky said it was special on Tuesday to beat the two Quebec athletes, who finished second and fourth, as they competed in the Paralympics in Sochi.
"That was nice to be able to beat some Olympians," he said, adding he wants to be at the next event in South Korea in 2018. "I want to be a top-five guy by then."
In the year leading up to his place on the Games podium, there have been lots of humourous moments.
"Me falling and crashing and taking out a bunch of little kids," he said with a laugh. "That was last year when I still couldn't turn.
"I've came a long ways in just a year."
