Less Than One Year to IX Paralympic Games

On March 10, 2006, Torino, Italy, will host the IX Winter Paralympic Games, nine days of intense competition among the world’s elite disabled athletes.

About 60 U.S. athletes will be competing in 52 medal events in four different sports. This represents fewer medals and one more sport (wheelchair curling) than the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake.

In Salt Lake, Team USA made history by winning 43 medals, topping the medal count and winning the country’s most medals in a winter games. In 2006, because of a new classification system for Alpine Skiing, the number of medal events will be reduced.

The new system combines the classifications into three medal-event categories (sitting, standing, and visually-impaired), reducing the number of Paralympic medal events from 53 at the Salt Lake Paralympic Games to 24.

“The value of each medal has really increased,” said Sandy Metzger, program director for the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. “The competition will be a lot more fierce this time.”

She added, “The US Team [having just won the Nation’s Cup] is doing awesomely well. We’re looking at a real strong Paralympic team.”

Wheelchair Curling will be featured as a medal event for the first time in Paralympic history. Team USA qualified through their top-eight finishes at the 2004 and 2005 World Wheelchair Curling Championships.

The U.S. Sled Hockey team will have open tryouts at Colorado Springs in June. The deadline to sign up for the tryouts is May 16. A list of 20 athletes will be chosen who will train through December. The final team will be selected by Jan. 1, 2006. More information can be found at www.usparalympics.com.

As of March 2005, here is a list of U.S. Paralympic hopefuls: