YARMOUTH – A Yarmouth High School freshman is enjoying a hero’s welcome after returning home from the World Para Olympics for disabled athletes with three gold medals for skiing.

The Town Council organized a parade for Sarah Billmeier, 14, designated Sunday as a day in her honor.

Billmeier was the youngest skier on the U.S. disabled ski team and the youngest athlete in the games in Albertville, France. She won gold medals in the downhill, giant slalom and Super G skiing events.

The French press had dubbed her the “queen of the games,” and on Sunday she was the queen of Yarmouth. After riding a limousine through town, she entered the high school gym to a standing ovation from about 250 people.

Billmeier sat through a half-hour of accolades, then fielded questions and signed autographs for young fans.

“The competition was great,” she said. “The snow was great.”

Billmeier lost her left leg to bone cancer when she was five, but hasn’t let that stop her from competing in sports. She has learned to plunge down the slopes on a single ski aided by outrigger devices – ski poles with miniature skis on the end.

Her father, Randall Billmeier, says his daughter’s determination to compete “was not just surprising, but inspirational” to the rest of the family.

Billmeier’s most satisfying personal accomplishment may have been her win in the downhill.

It is her favorite event, but she hasn’t had much practice at it because a skier has to be 15 to enter U.S. Ski Association-sanctioned downhills.

Billmeier hopes to compete again in two years when the Paralympics will be a recognized part of the regular Olympic Games.