Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Wenham, Massachusetts, U.S. | March 5, 1984|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 0 in (152 cm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 119 lb (54 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Para-alpine skiing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disability class | LW12-1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super combined, super-G | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Laurie Stephens (born March 5, 1984) is an alpine monoskier who has spina bifida. She has won multiple medals for the United States at the Paralympics. [1] She has also had success at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup.
Laurie Stephens started skiing at age 12 on Loon Mountain in New Hampshire and then began racing 3 years later at age 15 when she became a member of Chris Devlin-Young's New England Disabled Ski Team. [2] Stephens competes in 5 different skiing events which are the downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G, and Super Combined. She has competed in 4 Paralympic games and 5 world championships. Her debut as a Paralympian was in 2006 and since she has competed in the 2010, 2014, and the 2018 games. She has won a total of 7 Paralympic medals (2 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze) and 7 world championship medals (1 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze). [2] Stephens was named the Paralympic Sportswoman of the Year in 2006 by the United States Olympic Committee. Some of her best racing performances where in 2006 when she won her two gold medals in the super-G-Sitting (time 1:33.88) and downhill-Sitting (time 1:46.86). [1] In 2006 Stephens was also nominated for an Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award as Best Female Athlete with a Disability. In the 2018 PyeongChang games Laurie Stephens won a bronze medal for the US in alpine skiing using a mono-ski, her time was 1:35.8. In 2018 she also placed 4th in the Super combined-Sitting, 5th in the super-G-Sitting and Slalom-Sitting, 7th in giant slalom-Sitting. [2] Stephens also has competed for the United States in Paralympic swimming she held two records on in the 100-meter backstroke and one in the 200-meter backstroke. [1]
She won the gold medal in the women's giant slalom sitting para-alpine skiing event at the 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships. [3]
Outside of sports she studied therapeutic recreation at the University of New Hampshire. [4]
The United States sent 56 athletes to the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, Italy, the largest delegation of any nation. Chris Devlin-Young, a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team and four-time Paralympic medalist in alpine skiing, served as the flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. ice sledge hockey player Lonnie Hannah, a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City and the bronze medal-winning team in Turin, was the flag bearer at the closing ceremonies.
Paralympic alpine skiing has been competed at the Winter Paralympic Games since they were first held in 1976. Events include men's and women's downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined.
Toby Kane is an Australian Paralympian who won a bronze medal in the men's super G Standing at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino and a bronze medal in the men's super G standing in his third Winter Paralympics at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi. Invited to join the Australian Winter Paralympic Development team when he was just 11, he became the youngest member of the Australian team in Torino at the age of 19. He had the honour of being Australia's flag bearer at the closing ceremony in Torino, and at the opening ceremony in Vancouver. Towards the end of the Sochi Games, Kane and Dutch snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee were named winners of the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award, which is presented at every Paralympic Games for outstanding performances and overcoming adversity.
Alana Jane Nichols is an American Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and alpine skier.
Kelly Gallagher MBE, is a retired British skier and the first athlete from Northern Ireland to compete in the Winter Paralympics. Gallagher won Britain's first ever Winter Paralympic gold medal during Sochi 2014.
The 1994 Winter Paralympics were held in Lillehammer, Norway. Australia sent six male skiers, who won three gold, two silver and four bronze medals. Australia, at the time, achieved their best ever performance at a Winter Paralympics, finishing 5th overall in the alpine skiing competition, 9th in the medal standings, and 11th in the total medal count out of 31 nations.
Cameron Rahles-Rahbula is a former Paralympic alpine skier from Australia. He won two bronze medals at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. He represented Australia in four Paralympics, stating with the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City and the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino. He did not compete in any events at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi due to knee and ankle injuries sustained during the warm up for the downhill event of the Games but carried the Australian flag in the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony. He also won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2004 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Wildschönau, Austria, and a gold and a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships in Jeongseon, Korea. He retired after the Sochi Games.
Melissa Perrine is a B2 classified visually impaired para-alpine skier from Australia. She has competed at the four Winter Paralympics from 2010 to 2022. At the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, she won three gold, one silver and one bronze medals. At the 2018 Winter Paralympics, she won two bronze medals.
Mitchell Gourley is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier who competed for Australia in the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined events at four Winter Paralympics - 2010 to 2022. He was Australian team co-captain with Joany Badenhorst at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. At the 2022 Winter Paralympics, he and Melissa Perrine carried the Australian flag in the opening ceremony. At the 2017 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy he won the gold medal in the men's Super Combined Standing.
Andy Bor is an Australian former ski coach and sighted guide for visually impaired skiers. He was a coach at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino, and was Melissa Perrine's guide skier at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver and 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi.
Karolina Wisniewska is a para-alpine standing skier. Born in Warsaw, she moved to Canada when she was 5 years old where she then took up skiing as a form of physical therapy for her cerebral palsy. Over the course of her skiing career, she won eight total Paralympic medals for skiing, and 18 medals at International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cups. At the 2002 Winter Paralympics, she earned four medals, the most ever earned by a Canadian para-alpine skier at a single Games. Wisniewska retired from the sport for a second time in May 2012 following an injury in 2011 that resulted in her missing most of the 2011/2012 skiing season.
Victoria "Tori" Pendergast is an Australian F58 athletics shot put competitor and LW12.1 classified Para-alpine skier. When she competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, she became Australia's first female sit skier at the Winter Paralympics. She competed in two events, finishing seventh in women's slalom sit-ski and tenth in the women's giant slalom sit-ski. She also won a silver and a bronze medal in the slalom and super-G at the 2013 North America Cup, and a bronze medal in the giant slalom at the 2013 IPC World Cup in Thredbo.
Claudia Lösch is a successful Austrian Paralympian and alpine monoskier. She won gold medals in the slalom and super slalom at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. She also won a silver medal at the Alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Paralympics – Women's super-G.
Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber is a German para-alpine skier. At the 2014 Winter Paralympics she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.
Millicent Genevieve Knight is a British skier and student who competes at international level for ParalympicsGB in alpine skiing in the slalom, giant slalom Super-G, super combined and Downhill events with a sighted guide, Brett Wild. When Knight was one year old, she contracted an illness, diagnosed at age three, which resulted in the loss of most of her vision by the age of six. She joined the Great Britain Paralympic skiing team in 2012, and progressed to compete at international-level events. Knight was the British flagbearer at Sochi in 2014 – her debut Paralympics - where, at the age of 15, she was the youngest person ever to compete for ParalympicsGB at the Winter Games. In the same year Knight also became an Honorary Doctor of the University of Kent.
Macmilton "Mac" Marcoux is a Canadian Paralympic alpine skier who won three titles at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup at the age of 15. With guide Robin Femy, he won three medals in alpine skiing at the 2014 Winter Paralympics, including gold in the men's visually impaired giant slalom. He also has numerous awards including being inducted into the Sault Ste. Marie Walk of Fame. He has an older brother and a younger sister. He also enjoys riding BMX and mountain bikes.
Anna-Lena Forster is a German para-alpine skier who competed at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Paralympics winning six medals.
Menna Fitzpatrick MBE is a British alpine skier. She is visually impaired having only 5% vision and formerly skied with guide Jennifer Kehoe until 2021. They competed at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang in March 2018 where they took four medals, including a gold in the slalom, making Fitzpatrick Team GB's most decorated Winter Paralympian.
Danja Haslacher is an Austrian alpine skier who won five gold medals and one bronze medal at the Paralympic Games between 1998 and 2006. She also won the 2004 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships super-G LW2 event.