MILAN (AP) — The Winter Paralympics will officially kick off on Friday with the opening ceremony in Verona, Italy.
Milan Cortina will have a record number of athletes and medals with 665 para-athletes and 79 sets of medals awarded.
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They will compete in six events: para alpine skiing, para biathlon, para cross-country skiing, para ice hockey, para snowboarding and wheelchair curling.
In ski sports – para alpine skiing, para biathlon, para cross-country skiing – athletes compete in one of three categories: standing, seated (sit skis or snowboards) or visually impaired (racing with a guide connected via radio).
Tour guides also receive medals.
Within these three categories, skiers compete at different levels based on their functional abilities. A performance calculation system determines each athlete’s scoring time, which allows athletes from different levels to compete against each other.
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Let’s take a look at sports:
Disabled alpine skiing
Introduced at the first Winter Paralympic Games in 1976, it includes five events: slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill and super all-around.
There are 30 medal events – 15 for men and 15 for women.
In the seated category, athletes use specialized snowboards, which are seats mounted on a single ski with shock absorbers to aid in riding and turning on uneven terrain.
In parabiathlon and paracross, a sit-on ski is a sit-down device mounted on a pair of cross-country skis.
Para-alpine skiing will be held at the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which was also the signature course for the women’s alpine skiing event at the recently concluded Winter Olympics.
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Biathlon for people with disabilities
Combine the power and endurance of cross-country skiing with the precision and composure of target shooting.
Each level has three events: 7.5-kilometer sprint, 12.5-kilometer individual and short-distance pursuit. Men and women compete separately, with a total of 18 medal events.
There are multiple breaks on the ski slopes, and between each lap, athletes shoot at five metal targets 10 meters away. For each miss, they receive a time penalty or have to skip a penalty cycle, depending on the event.
Athletes with upper limb disabilities can, with the help of a trainer, position the rifle and pull the trigger in their direction. In the visually impaired category, athletes will have the help of a sound target to indicate their distance to the target before shooting.
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The sport was first introduced for physically disabled athletes at the 1988 Innsbruck Paralympic Games and for visually impaired athletes at the 1992 Albertville Paralympic Games.
In Milan Cortina, parabiathlon will be held at the Tesero cross-country ski stadium.
Cross-country skiing for people with disabilities
This will also be held in Tesero, with a total of 20 medal events.
There are three events for men and women (across three categories): sprint race, 10-kilometer interval start classic, and 20-kilometer interval start free race. There is also a mixed 4×2.5km relay and an open 4×2.5km relay.
Each competition offers separate sessions for athletes in the seated category and athletes in the standing and visually impaired categories. Sit skiers’ routes are less steep because the athlete relies on their upper body to push/pull themselves forward while sit skiing.
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Relay teams may consist of two, three or four athletes (plus guides as appropriate), with athletes able to ski multiple legs.
Para ice hockey
Para ice hockey was invented in a rehabilitation center in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1960s by a group of Swedes who wanted to continue playing ice hockey despite their physical disabilities.
It debuted at the 1994 Winter Paralympic Games in Lillehammer for athletes with physical disabilities in the lower limbs. The game consists of three 15-minute periods.
Instead of skates, players use a double-blade sled, which the puck slides underneath, and has two sticks, the pointed end of the stick for propulsion and the blade end for handling the puck.
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Para ice hockey is a mixed-gender sport, although only two teams in Milan Cortina have women – Japan and Slovakia.
Additionally, only three female ice hockey players have competed in the Paralympics: Norway’s Brit Mjaasund Oeyen in 1994, Lena Schroeder at Pyeongchang 2018, and China’s Yu Jing at Beijing 2022.
Team USA won the men’s and women’s events at the most recent Winter Olympics and is looking to complete a three-peat. The United States has also won ice hockey five of the past six Winter Paralympics, a record that only Canada surpassed in 2006.
The match will be held at Milan’s new Santa Giulia Stadium. There are eight teams, divided into two groups. The two teams compete within their groups in a round-robin format, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semi-finals.
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Disabled skis
It debuted in Sochi in 2014 as part of alpine skiing, although the number of events has varied in subsequent Olympics.
In Milan Cortina, there are two category III activities for men and one for women, depending on disability.
Male lower limb disorders are divided into two categories, one is for patients with upper limb disorders, while there is another category for female lower limb disorders.
Paralyzed snowboarders or snowboarders with disabilities in both legs may compete using prosthetics or modified equipment.
The two events, Slalom and Snowboard Cross, will be held in Cortina. In tilt slalom, athletes earn two personal times on the course, with their best time counting towards the final ranking.
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The snowboard cross preliminaries and finals will feature four athletes competing at the same time. The top two in the preliminaries advance, and then the first to cross the finish line wins the final.
wheelchair curling
This mixed team event for athletes with physical disabilities in the legs celebrates its 20th anniversary this year since it was first launched at the 2006 Paralympic Games in Italy.
Players can choose whether to throw rocks alone or with a teammate who holds their wheelchair steady. Athletes can use extenders to increase speed and direction.
Each tournament has eight games, two fewer than the Olympics, and no sweeps.
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The tournament will be held at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium and will include mixed doubles matches for the first time as well as regular mixed team matches.
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AP Winter Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games
