Paralympic Winter Sports: Hot Blades and Heavy Donuts

It is time for winter sports again. And after the most successful Paralympic Summer Games of all times in 2008 athletes from around the world are already training for the next Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010. Biathlon, Ice Sledge Hockey and Wheelchair curling are three of five paralympic winter sports in which athletes compete. Read here how these sports have developed, when they became paralympic disciplines and how they work.

01/01/2009

With Full Force: Ice Sledge Hockey

A sledge instead of shoes;
© Prezioso/IPC

Ice Sledge Hockey is a sport for daredevils since it is fast and rugged. Strength, agility and skilfulness are important – and protective clothes. Even the puck can be as fast as 170 kilometres per hour.

Ice Sledge Hockey is played much the same as conventional Ice Hockey – except the fact that the players do not stand on skates but sit on sledges. Furthermore, they have two sticks. On the one end there is a pick that players use to propel the sledge; with the other they shoot the puck.

There are three 15-minutes periods in each game. Five players and one goalkeeper from each team are on the field at the same time.

First in the 60s this form of sport was invented. In a Swedish rehabilitation centre athletes with a disability wanted to continue playing Hockey. They developed a metal frame sled with two skate blades where a puck could pass. It became paralympic in Lillehammer already in 1994.

Chess on the Ice: Wheelchair Curling

These donuts are not eatable © IPC

What is so interesting about Curling? It is the mixture from strategy and technique. That is why Curling is also called “chess on the ice”.

One Curling team consists of four players which have special names: Lead, Second, Third and the Skip who is the leader and decides which tactic is used in the next movement.

From a stationary wheelchair the players push 40 pound granite donuts with a stick or with their hands down a sheet of ice towards a circular target that around 40 metres away to try to place them closer to the centre than those thrown by the opponent. The team with more donuts lying nearer to the target at the end of the game is the winner.

The only differences to usual Curling are that the donut’s slide is not being influenced by sweeping and the players are sitting in a wheelchair.

Wheelchair Curling has a long tradition: the oldest preserved Curling donut date’s from the 15th century and was found in Scotland. However, it is quite a newcomer in the paralympic winter sports and had its debut at the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. Meanwhile around 25 nations play the game.

Hunting in the Snow: Biathlon

Shooting and running: This is no
action movie; © Lieven/IPC

Biathlon’s challenge: The athletes need physical endurance as well as concentration and shooting accuracy.

In long distance athletes on skis run 12.5 kilometres and in short distance 7.5. Every 2.5 kilometres they must hit two targets located at a distance of 10 metres. Each miss is penalized by an increase in the overall route time in long distance or the athlete has to do an extra lap of about 150 metres in short distance. The fastest one wins.

Depending on the type of disability (mobility problems, paraplegia or amputation) the athletes are divided into groups and drive with ski or sit-skis. While running visually impaired and blind ones are lead by a sighted guide and shoot with laser guns instead of air guns. They find the target by the help of sound signals in headphones. The nearer the target gets, the higher the tone becomes.

There are records about hunting on skis from about 5000 years ago. In the late 19th century cross country skiing and shooting have been used for military purposes in tournaments. At first for physically handicapped persons Biathlon became a part of the Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1988. Later in 1992, visually disabled and blind athletes were included.

It All Began after the War: The Paralympic Games

The history of the Paralympics began with a tournament in Stoke Mandeville, England, after the Second World War. Veterans who had to use a wheelchair due to impairments caused by the fights wanted to do sport again. The first Summer Games took place in Rome in 1960, the Winter Games in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. In the next Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010 around 600 athletes will compete in 50 tournaments.

Natascha Mörs
REHACARE.de

It All Began after the War: The Paralympic Games - Read more about the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver 2010 at: www.vancouver2010.com/en