Skiing -- Alpine (Para)

Disabled athletes will compete in alpine skiing as part of the triumvirate of skiing events in the Cranbrook/Kimberley BC Winter Games. These athletes will challenge the hill and their competitors in either a sitting or a standing category. The sitting skiers will be in sitskis, mounted on a single ski, controlled by the athletes' arms and an acute sense of balance. The sitski athletes have little or no use of their legs and may also include amputees.

The standing class may also include leg amputees, arm amputees and those with paralyzed limbs or a disabling medical condition, such as cerebral palsy. These skiers may use outriggers, which provide supports for balance, crutches on skis so to speak.

Each classification has a scoring system based on a formula measuring race times, calculated according to the athletes' respective disabilities. All racers in both sitting and standing categories will compete on the same race courses, with slalom, giant slalom and kombi races being contested over the three day competitions.

Disabled skiing in Canada had its beginning in Alberta, which formed an association known as the Alberta Amputee Ski Association in 1969, since most of the founding members were amputees. As the association evolved, the name was changed to the Alberta Association for Disabled Skiers. No one has done more for disabled skiers than Jerry Johnston, a member of the Alberta Sportsman Hall of Fame, and in 2000, a member of the Order of Canada. Jerry was the driving force behind the formation of these associations.

Four decades ago, Jerry worked with a disabled skier in his Sunshine Village Ski School in Banff. Soon there were others, and in 1974, the first Canadian Disabled Skiing Festival was held in Sunshine Village Ski Resort, evidence that the sport and Jerry Johnston had become popular with disabled athletes. In 1988, Jerry headed the Disabled Skiing Exhibition at the Calgary Olympics.

Today, there are numerous organizations in Canada, and disabled skiers have competed throughout North America and Europe. In 1997, at the World Cup for the Disabled competition in Pra Loup, France, the 10 member Canadian Team won 6 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals. In the same year, The Canadian Disabled Ski Festival and Championship was held in Kimberley, with participants coming from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, South African, Japan and the USA and Canada.

On Sunday, February 24th, the 24 disabled skiers and their 14 coaches will gather at the Stemwinder Lounge at the Resort of the Rockies for the awards presentations. Disabled skiing competition has come a long way since the early days of Jerry Johnston's ski school in Banff.

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