The following sports are included into the program of the Х Winter Paralympic Games 2010 in Vancouver

Alpine Skiing

Up to the 1970s, Alpine Skiing races were limited to skiers who could stand or had visual impairment. The invention of the mono-ski – a seat fixed on single ski – opened the sport to athletes who could not stand to ski. Slalom and Giant Slalom were introduced at the first Paralympics Winter Games in ?rnsk?ldsvik in 1976. Downhill was added to the Paralympic Games in 1984 in Innsbruck, and Super-G was added in 1994 at Lillehammer. Mono-skiing became a medal event at the Nagano 1998 Paralympic Games.

In Paralympic alpine skiing, racers can reach speeds of more than 100 kilometers an hour, traveling down a vertical drop that ranges from 120 to 800 meters. The vertical drop is made even more difficult by a series of gates the skiers must twist and turn to pass through.

In Alpine Skiing, athletes are classified as standing, sitting or visually impaired and compete against other athletes with a similar disability. Skiers with a visual impairment use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers, but ski with a guide who leads them through the race with his voice. Skiers with locomotive disabilities may either use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers or prosthesis (an artificial arm or leg) and stabilizers in place of ski poles (stabilizers are a type of crutch with a small ski at the end). Sitting skiers use mono-skis.

Alpine events for men and women are downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super combined and super G.

More than 35 countries are practicing Alpine Skiing and this number is constantly growing.

Ice Sledge Hockey

Ice Sledge Hockey is the Paralympic version of Ice Hockey. Since its debut on the Paralympic program at the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Paralympics, it has quickly become one of the largest attractions for spectators at the Winter Paralympics.

It is fast-paced, highly physical and played by male athletes with a physical disability in the lower part of the body.

It follows the rules of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) with some modifications. Eight ice sledge hockey teams compete in round-robin tournaments, and top seeded teams from round robin play advance to the playoff rounds. A team must not have more than six players on the ice while play is in progress. The object is for one team to get the puck (a hard black rubber disc) past the other team’s goaltender and into the goal. A regular game consists of three 15-minute period.

Ice Sledge Hockey is actively practiced in 10 countries.

Cross Country Skiing

Cross Country skiing is the oldest kind of ski sport which appeared in Northern Europe. As time went by it later received the name of Nordic Skiing as originally came from Scandinavian countries.

Paralympic cross-country skiing was included as an event into the first Paralympic Winter Games in 1976, at ?rnsk?ldsvik, with classical technique events only, free technique was introduced in 1992 at Albertville.

In both Biathlon and cross-country skiing, athletes are categorized as standing, sitting or visually impaired and compete against athletes with similar disabilities. Visually impaired skiers use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers but ski with a guide. Standing skiers are skiers with a locomotive disability and who are able to use the same equipment as able-bodied skiers. Sit-skiers usually have no use of their legs (paraplegic) and use a special made sit-ski (a specially built chair, called a sledge, attached to a pair of skis).

Racers use two basic techniques in cross-country: classical, where the skis move parallel to each other through machine-groomed tracks in the snow, and free technique where skiers propel themselves in a manner similar to speed skating, pushing off with the edge of their skis.

Free technique uses shorter skis and is slightly faster than classical – on average about 8% faster over an entire race distance.

Paralympic cross-country skiers compete in men’s and women’s individual events over short, middle and long distances ranging from 1 kilometre to 20 kilometres. Each race has an interval start with skiers starting every 30 seconds. The International Paralympic Committee utilizes a Nordic Percentage System in order to equalize the disability time handicap for skiers within each category. The percentage is applied to each skier’s final time and the skier with the lowest calculated time is the winner.

In the relay event, each team member skis one leg. Teams are made up of skiers from different categories but with the total percentage for each team being equal. This means that no time calculation is required and the first team across the finish line wins.

Program

Cross Country skiing (individual events)

Athletes with locomotor and visual impairments

(standing skiers)

Sit-skiers

Relay

Male: 1 leg – 4 km and 2 legs 5km each

Female: 3 legs 2.5km each

Biathlon

Biathlon was first introduced in the 1988 Paralympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. The shooting system has changed considerably since then when, at the 2002 Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, a new electronic and acoustic system was developed.

Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting similar to the Olympic Biathlon competitions. Paralympic athletes, however, shoot in a prone position, except from sit-skiers who are free to choose between prone and sitting position.

Competitions in Biathlon are held in two races – short and long race. In the short distance Biathlon , skiers race a 2.5-kilometre loop three times stopping twice at the shooting range where they take five shots at a metal target 10 metres away. Each target has five plates, fixed in a straight row, which the athlete must hit the middle (bull’s eye) of. The bull’s eye is 15 mm in diameter and if a competitor misses a plate, they must ski a 150 m penalty loop for each missed shot.

In long-distance Biathlon, competitors ski the loop five times and stop four times at the shooting range. Missing a shot can be costly: for every miss, a competitor receives 20 seconds time penalty that is added to their overall skiing time. In the best case all athletes in long race ski 12, 5 km race and only female sit-skiers ski 10 km distance.

In Biathlon athletes don’t carry rifles with themselves – the rifles stay at the shooting range. Blind athletes are shooting with an electronic rifle that allows aiming by hearing. The closer the rifle points to the centre of the target the higher the tone is. The different tones that occur when the rifle is moved, allowing the shooter to find the exact centre of the target.

Biathlon races comprise an interval start format with skiers starting every 30 seconds. The International Paralympic Committee uses a Nordic Percentage System in order to equalize the disability time handicap for skiers within each category. The percentage is applied to each skier’s final time and the skier with the lowest calculated time is the winner.

Wheelchair curling

Wheelchair curling is a sport game of great skills and strategy. Wheelchair curling is a relatively new sport in the Paralympic program making its Paralympic debut at the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. The first World Wheelchair Curling Championships were held in Switzerland in 2002.

The sport is open to male and female athletes with a physical disability in the lower part of the body, who can not walk or walk only short distances and usually require a wheelchair for daily mobility.

Wheelchair curling teams include both male and female athletes.

Two teams play against each other, taking turns pushing stones (around 19 kilograms) down a sheet of ice towards a series of concentric rings or circles. The object is to get the stones as close to the centre of the rings as possible.

A game consists of eight “ends” (similar to innings in baseball). During each end, each four-person team “throws” (in fact, slides along the ice) eight stones – two stones per person and 16 all together. The stones must be thrown while the player’s wheelchair is stationary. Players may use their hands to throw the stone or an extender cue that can be attached to the handle of the stone to push it along the ice. The absence of sweeping – the main difference from Olympic curling – makes the strategy and finesse of each throw all the more important.