Para alpine skiing is an adaptation of alpine skiing for athletes with a disability. The sport evolved from the efforts of disabled veterans in Germany and Austria during and after the Second World War. The sport is governed by the International Paralympic Committee Sports Committee. The primary equipment used includes outrigger skis, sit-skis, and mono-skis. Para alpine skiing disciplines include the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, super combined, and snowboard.
Para alpine skiing classification is the classification system for Para alpine skiing designed to ensure fair competition between alpine skiers with different types of disabilities. The classifications are grouped into three general disability types: standing, blind and sitting. A factoring system was created for Para alpine skiing to allow the three classification groupings to fairly compete against each other in the same race despite different functional skiing levels and medical challenges.
Alpine skiing was one of the foundation sports at the first Winter Paralympics in 1976 with Slalom and giant slalom events being held. Different disciplines were added to the Paralympic programme over time. The 2010 Winter Paralympics Para alpine skiing events were held at Whistler Creekside. The disciplines at Whistler included downhill, super combined, super-G, slalom and giant slalom.
History
Skiing as a sport for people with disabilities traces its origins back to the Second World War, which produced large numbers of wounded soldiers. In Germany, Franz Wendel, an amputee who had lost a leg, successfully attached a pair of crutches to short skis. Sepp "Peppi" Zwicknagel, an Austrian veteran who had lost both his legs to a hand grenade, taught himself to ski and eventually became a ski instructor at Kitzbühel, founded a division of the Austrian Ski Association for disabled skiers. By 1947, annual races were being held in Austria. Ludwig Guttmann, a key figure in the history of paralympic sport, helped organise ski events. In the United States, Gretchen Fraser began teaching skiing to amputees in army hospitals. By the 1960s, a number of organisations had been founded. For a long time, disability skiing was restricted to amputees, but in 1969, blind skier Jean Eymere, a former ski instructor before he lost his eyesight, began a skiing program in Aspen, Colorado for blind skiers. The first international competition, the World Disabled Alpine Championships, was held in France in 1974.
Events
Paralympics
Alpine skiing was one of the foundation sports at the first Winter Paralympics in 1976 with slalom and giant slalom events being held. At the 1984 Winter Paralympics, the downhill event was added to the Para alpine programme, along with sit-skiing as a demonstration sport. At the 1992 Winter Paralympics in Albertville, downhill, giant and slalom events were on the programme. At the 1994 Winter Paralympics, the super giant slalom was added to the Para alpine skiing programme. In 1998, Para alpine skiing classes for sitting and visually impaired skiers were added as full medal events after only having standing classes competing in previous Games.
At the 2002 Winter Paralympics, women's Downhill and men's visually impaired Downhill were held on day 1 with men's standing and sitting Downhill taking place on day 2. Men's standing and sitting Super-G took place on day 3, with men's visually impaired and women's Super-G taking place on day 5. Men's standing and sitting giant slalom took place on day 7, with women's and men's visually impaired giant slalom taking place on day 8. Men's standing and sitting Slalom took place on day 9, with women's and men's visually impaired Slalom taking place on day 10.
For the 2006 Winter Paralympics, major changes were made to the classification system used for the Games that combined the 14 classes used into three groups with the results factored across different classifications in the group. At those Games, in the Super-G, there were 55 male competitors compared to 18 women in the standing group.
The 2010 Winter Paralympics Para alpine skiing events were held at Whistler Creekside. The disciplines at Whistler included downhill, super-combined, super-G, slalom and giant slalom. It was the first time the super-combined was on the Paralympic programme. In the downhill event, there were 25 men and 18 women in the standing class, 25 men and 10 women in the sitting class and 12 men and 10 women in the vision impaired class. In the super-combined, there were 18 men and 14 women for standing, 18 men and 10 women for sitting and 10 men and 10 women for vision impaired. The Slalom race had the shortest course length of the major Para alpine events at the Games. The Downhill was held for both men and women in all classes on day 2. The Super-G was held for men and women in standing classes on day 3, with visual impaired and sit-skiers competing in the super-G on day 4. The Super Combined for all classes and both genders was held on day 5. The standing giant slalom for men and women was held on day 7 and the remaining classes on day 8. The Slalom was held for standing men and women on day 9 and remaining classes on day 10.
The 2014 Winter Paralympics Para alpine skiing took place at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. Added to this discipline these games was the Para snowboard cross which was held at Rosa Khutor along with the super-G, downhill, super-combined, slalom and giant slalom. In the downhill event for the visually impaired there were 11 men and 6 women. For the downhill standing, there were 17 men and 8 women. For the downhill sitting, 22 men and 6 women participated. In the Super-G for the visually impaired, there were 15 men and 6 women. The Super-G standing event had 31 men and 15 women. The Super-G sitting was contested by 31 men and 8 women. The men's and women's Super Combined Downhill and Super Combined Slalom took place on 11 March and both genders' Para snowboard cross events took place on 14 March.
World Championships
Governance, rules and events International and national events for the sport include the Winter Paralympics, World Championships, World Cups, Continental Cups, National Championships, IPCAS Races and IPCAS Para snowboard. Skiers from 39 different countries actively compete in Para alpine skiing in a sport is that one of eight governed by the International Paralympic Committee Sports Committee, with rules for Para alpine skiing set forth in the IPCAS Rules and Regulations. Event specific rules may be created for events like the Paralympic Games. One set of rules was created in 1994 and were specified in the IPC Handbook. This was used to govern IPC-sanctioned events like the Paralympic Games for many years. Competition rules for classes use rules set by or modified from rules created by the International Ski Federation (ISF). These rules were set at the 42nd International Ski Conference in 2000. The two rule sets worked in concert with each other, with the ISF rules specifying the rules for alpine skiing, and the IPC providing modifications for Para alpine skiing. The IPC Alpine Sports Assembly Executive Committee can determine if skiers are eligible to compete in IPC sanctioned events at their own discretion regardless of what the rules say. National Paralympic Committees can have their own rule sets at national competitions.
Equipment
Sitting
The primary equipment used in the sport includes outrigger skis, sit-skis, and mono-skis. Depending on the classification, other equipment may be used by skiers including guide skiers, cut-down ski poles, orthopedic aids, or prostheses. For standing skiers, different class rules determine what sort of equipment is allowed in competition, such as one pole, two poles or no poles, or one or two skis. Rules for equipment use in competition are set by FIS and the IPC.
There are minimum lengths for skis used in competition, with men's skis needing to be at least long and women's skis needing to be at least long. Bindings used for skis have a maximum height of .
Sit-skis are designed for wheelchair users or other skiers with a form of paraplegia. The first sit-ski was built in 1967 by Josef Shrall from the Bavaria region of Germany. Early sit-skis used in Para alpine skiing had two wide skis, brakes, and were custom built to fit the specific skier. The weight of the ski prevented skiers from skiing moguls or steep slopes. Sit-ski development continued into the 1980s, with a more modern version demonstrated in Engelberg, Switzerland in 1987 at a workshop hosted by the . As the technology advanced, a chair was developed that could be attached to the skis which were used by non-disabled skiers. They are now made from fibreglass and polyester, and the weight has been dramatically reduced, allowing skiers to ski on steeper slopes and compete in the moguls. Current sit-skis include seat-belts. As skis for non-disabled skiers have evolved to specialise for the event, the skis that sit-skiers use have also changed.
Sit-skiers use a specially designed ski called a mono-ski, sometimes called a maxi mono-ski. It is used by skiers with lower limb disabilities including paralysis. A variation of the mono-ski exists for skiers with bilateral, above the knee amputations. The mono-ski was developed in Austria in the early 1980s by bilateral above-the-knee amputee Josef Feirsinger and engineer Horst Morokuti. The fundamental design they created is still the one used for mono-skis currently used in competition. The mono-ski was quickly used by German skiers who built their own at a workshop in Tübingen. The mono-ski uses the same skis used for non-disabled alpine skiing, adapted so that the skier sits on a chair attached to the ski via a spring. The mono-ski was first used at the 1988 Winter Paralympics.
A monoski, also known as a sit-ski, consists of a molded seat mounted on a metal frame. A shock absorber beneath the seat eases riding on uneven terrain and helps in turning by maximizing ski-snow contact. Modern monoskis interface with a single, ordinary alpine ski by means of a "ski foot," a metal or plastic block in the shape of a boot sole that clicks into the ski's binding. A monoskier uses outriggers for stability; an outrigger resembles a forearm crutch with a short ski on the bottom. People new to mono-skiing are often surprised to see how much terrain is skiable in a monoski; advanced monoskiers can be found not only carving turns on groomed runs but also skiing moguls, terrain parks, race courses, glades and even backcountry terrain—in short, wherever stand-up skiers can go.