A grandpa nap and a museum relic have helped Australia's most decorated winter Paralympian find his feet in his 20-year comeback at the Milan-Cortina Games.
A day after blasting his super-G performance as "pathetic", a refreshed Michael Milton returned to the Olympia delle Tofane course for Tuesday's (local time) alpine combined standing event sporting his tattered 1994 Lillehammer Games uniform.
The 52-year-old placed 13th overall, after a 13th-place finish in the super-G and a 14th-place finish in the slalom run.
Aleksei Bugaev won the super-G standing component but failed in his bid to win Russia's second gold medal of the Games after crashing in the slalom, with France's Arthur Bauchet taking victory to the raucous delight of the grandstand.
Fellow Australian alpine skier Josh Hanlon was 12th in the sitting event, recovering from a 16th-place finish in the super-G by flaunting his technical prowess to finish 11th in the slalom.
Australia boasts just one medal after four days of competition, with four-time Paralympian Ben Tudhope claiming SB-LL2 snowboard cross silver.
Milton had promised more aggression after kicking off his remarkable comeback with a 23rd-place finish in Monday's super-G
The Canberra local had fought back tears in his post-super-G assessment, admitting to feeling afraid after undergoing surgery less than 25 days before for a leg fracture.
On Tuesday, Milton - also wearing a shin pad from 1989 - said he was having "way more fun".
"I had a grandpa nap yesterday afternoon for an hour or so," Milton said.
"I'm prepping my own skis at these Games, so I had a couple of hours in the tuning room, which is therapeutic within itself.
"Certainly today, I don't have the same level of fear and kind of uncontrolled emotion and stuff in the start.
"When it comes to slalom, it doesn't have the same intimidation factor that the super-G hill does."
Australia's winter chef de mission Ben Troy sourced Milton's old jumper from the Glory and Fame Museum, based at Essendon Football Club.
Milton made no promises to return the jumper.
"I'm an old guy and I've got old habits," Milton said.
"My jumper is part of our Lillehammer 94 uniform, and I've been wearing it for slalom since before the Lillehammer Games.
"We found at the Paralympic Museum in Essendon, and then we had to ask for it back so I could wear it again.
"32 years in the cupboard, I think it fits OK."
Milton is competing in his sixth Paralympics - making his debut at the 1988 Innsbruck Games before calling time after the 2006 Torino Games.
The 52-year-old won the country's first winter Paralympic gold medal at the 1992 Tignes-Albertville Games.
He boasts a total of 11 medals, including six gold medals.
"One of the great things from my career is seeing it, not at the very beginning, but 1988 - it was pretty early days," Milton said.
"It was a bit of an amateur show in lots of areas, from the athletes to the organisers.
"To see the scale of the event now for somebody who has a lifelong passion for the Paralympic movement is very cool."
Hanlon also finds some relief after crashing in both his downhill and super-G races.
"It was a tough couple of days, but glad we got over the line and can actually have something to show for the last few days," Hanlon said.
Milton and Hanlon will return to compete in giant slalom and slalom, alongside debutants Liana France and Georgia Gunew, with guide Ethan Jackson.
AAP travelled to Cortina d'Ampezzo as a guest of Paralympics Australia.
