The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement.
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, or the tenth Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from March 12 to 21, 2010. The opening ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing Ceremony in Whistler Medals Plaza.
Para biathlon is a winter sport that combines target shooting and cross-country skiing. It is a race with contestants alternating between skiing through a cross-country trail and shooting at targets; missed shots result in a penalty of either extra time or extra distance. Para biathlon includes standing events, sitting events, and events for athletes with visual impairments, and has been a Paralympic sport since 1988.
The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about 80 events. The number and kinds of events may change from one Paralympic Games to another.
Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and Paralympic Games, won important international titles like the football World Cup, or placed several times at international championships.
Martin Braxenthaler is a German monoskier and Paralympian. He has participated in alpine skiing at four Winter Paralympic Games, in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010. He won a bronze medal at the 1998 Winter Paralympics, four golds at the 2002 Games, three more golds at the 2006 Torino Paralympics and three golds and one silver at the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics.
Germany sent 20 competitors to compete in four disciplines at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They placed first overall in the medal standings with a total of 13 gold medals.
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially known as the X Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from March 12 to March 21, 2010. A total of 506 athletes from 44 nations participated in 64 events from five different sport disciplines.
B3 is a medical based Paralympic classification for blind sport. Competitors in this classification have partial sight, with visual acuity from 2/60 to 6/60. It is used by a number of blind sports including para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, blind cricket, blind golf, five-a-side football, goalball and judo. Some other sports, including adaptive rowing, athletics and swimming, have equivalents to this class.
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. Classification governance is handled by International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing. Prior to that, several sport governing bodies dealt with classification including the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD), International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMWSF), International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA). Some classification systems are governed by bodies other than International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing, such as the Special Olympics. The sport is open to all competitors with a visual or physical disability. It is not open to people with intellectual disabilities.
Para-Nordic skiing classification is the classification system for para-Nordic skiing which includes the biathlon and cross-country events. The classifications for Para-Nordic skiing mirrors the classifications for Para alpine skiing with some exceptions. A functional mobility and medical classification is in use, with skiers being divided into three groups: standing skiers, sit skiers and visually impaired skiers. International classification is governed by International Paralympic Committee, Nordic Skiing (IPC-NS). Other classification is handled by national bodies. Before the IPC-NS took over classification, a number of organizations handled classification based on the type of disability.
Women's short distance cross-country free skiing events at the 2006 Winter Paralympics were contested at Pragelato on 12 March.
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.
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.
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.
Jade Etherington is a British former alpine skier who, with her sighted guide Caroline Powell, won silver in the women's downhill skiing, combined and slalom, and bronze medals in the Super-G at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi. Their three silvers and a bronze at the Winter Paralympics made them the most successful female British Winter Paralympians of all time, and the first Britons to win four medals at one Paralympics. Because of her success at the 2014 Paralympics, Etherington was the British flagbearer at the 2014 Winter Paralympics closing ceremony.
Verena Schott is a German paraswimmer and Paralympic medal winner.
Jon Kreamelmeyer is an American cross-country skiing coach and a member of the Paralympic Hall of Fame.
Shelley Gautier is a Canadian multi-medalist in para-cycling. At the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships from 2010 to 2022, Gautier has won 16 golds as part of her 19 medals. At the Parapan American Games, Gautier won a silver at the mixed road time trial event held at the 2011 Parapan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games. As a Paralympic competitor, Gautier won a bronze at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in the women's time trial event. Apart from para-cycling, Gautier competed in disabled sailing. Gautier was inducted into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame in 2003 and nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in 2015.
Elena Krawzow is a blind German Paralympic swimmer who specializes in breaststroke and freestyle. She has macular degeneration, leaving her with only 3% vision.
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