But there is still plenty to be proud of for the Wanaka alpine skier, who finished fifth in the men’s downhill sitting in tough conditions at Milano Cortina yesterday.
He also gets another chance tonight in the men’s super G sitting.
Peters, who was the defending champion from Beijing four years ago, made a couple of costly errors but twice managed to make a phenomenal recovery to stay upright and record a time of 1min 20.89sec.
Norwegian Jesper Pedersen, silver medallist from Beijing, produced a slick run down the Olimpia delle Tofane to register 1min 18.14sec to win gold.
Niels de Langen, of the Netherlands, claimed silver and Canadian Kurt Oatway rounded out the podium.
"I feel disappointed," Peters said.
"We work pretty hard over a number of years, and a lot of dedication and sacrifice goes into it.
"Unfortunately, conditions did not really gel with me today and I didn’t adapt.
"I kept getting pushed offline on the jumps, which ultimately cost me a lot of time.
"As an athlete you set the bar pretty high and I probably didn’t meet my own expectations.
"Fifth was definitely not what I was looking for with downhill being one of my better events.”
Competing in warm temperatures of around 9°C and softening snow conditions, 11 of the field of 23 did not finish, including Dutchman Jeroen Kampschreur, the quickest man in both training runs.
Peters, who was second out of the start gate, produced an impressive first half of the race, posting the second-fastest marks of the day through the first and second intermediate splits as well as registering the fastest mark through the speed gun.
However, his race was soon to quickly unravel as he made two errors off the jumps and went off the optimal racing line. Showing incredible balance and agility, the sit-skier somehow stayed on course, but bled precious time, which was to cost the New Plymouth-raised and Wānaka-based Para alpine skier a podium spot.
“We’ve had a high attrition rate with both training runs purely due to the conditions.
"When you put your ski in the turn you expect something to come back and get a reaction, but with how soft it is and how slushy it is we are not getting the same reaction.
"It will take a while to sink in, but I will try and make amends in the next couple of events."
Peters competes tonight in the men’s super G sitting from 9.30pm and will then line up in the men’s giant slalom sitting on Friday.
