Chinese athletes Ji Lijia, Wang Pengyao and Zhu Yonggang, bagged the top three medals in the men's snowboard cross SB-UL big-final at the 2022 Winter Paralympics at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province on Monday.

This was the first time for Team China to do so since they began to participate in the Winter Paralympics. All three were locals of Hebei, which already have four gold medalists at Beijing 2022.

Ji, who won the gold, joined the provincial snowboarding team in 2016 when he was 14. His remarkable athleticism and hard-working efforts made him a top snowboarder who continued to win titles in the national tournament, Asian event and then the World Cup.

Ji said snowboarding changed him as well. "I was a very shy boy before starting to learn snowboarding," he said. "I always wore long clothing in summer because I didn't want people to see I have no left arm."

Ji said he began to make more friends in similar conditions after joining the snowboarding team. Slowly but surely, it helped him step out of the dark days. "Sports changed my life," Ji added.

Ji said he had never expected to win the gold. "It all felt like a dream, the building, the people and the spectators," he said. Ji threw himself to the snow ground after the race and life there for a long time. When he stood up, he was already in flooding tears.

"At this moment, it's worth it going through all the difficulties and setbacks before," Ji added.

Since all four athletes in the big final were from China, bronze medalist Zhu said it didn't feel like competing in an international tournament. "We were like; we are all teammates, it's basically the National Games," he said.

Wang expressed gratitude toward his coach and teammates, saying he couldn't have won the silver medal without the country's support. "The pride belongs to China," he said.