The 2010 Winter Paralympics, or the 10th Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, 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.
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.
Lauren Woolstencroft is a Canadian alpine skier and electrical engineer. Born missing her left arm below the elbow as well as both legs below the knees, she began skiing at the age of 4 and began competitive skiing at the age of 14. She is an eight-time gold medal winner at the Paralympics. In 1998, she was nicknamed "Pudding" by her teammates, due to her sweet tooth. Her life and achievements were celebrated in the Toyota ad "Good Odds" that aired just after kickoff during Super Bowl LII in February 2018.
The alpine skiing competition of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics will be held at Whistler, British Columbia. The events were due to be held between 13 March, and 21 March 2010. Events scheduled for 13 March, however, were postponed due to weather conditions – specifically, low visibility.
Canada was the host country of the 2010 Winter Paralympics, in Vancouver, the first time it had hosted the Winter Paralympics.
South Africa competed at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The appearance marked the nation's fourth appearance at a Winter Paralympics since its debut at the 1998 Games; to athlete has won any medals. As with the previous four occasions, the country's only representative at the 2010 Paralympics was alpine skier Bruce Warner. He acted as the flag bearer in the Parade of Nations during the opening ceremony. Warner competed in four standing skiing events, but did not place on the medal podiums.
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.
Canada has participated eleven times in the Summer Paralympic Games and in all Winter Paralympic Games. They first competed at the Summer Games in 1968 and the Winter Games in 1976.
The women's downhill competition of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics was held at Whistler Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia. The competition was scheduled for Saturday, March 13, but was postponed to Thursday, March 18, due to bad weather conditions.
Viviane Forest is a Canadian multi-sport Paralympic medallist. She was born and raised in Quebec, and currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.
The 1998 Winter Paralympics were held in Nagano, Japan from the 5–14 March 1998. At the Games, Australia was represented by four male alpine skiers. Australia finished equal 16th of 21 Nations on the overall medal tally. James Patterson, an LW9 standing skier, won Australia's two medals - one gold and one bronze.
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.
Marty Mayberry is a double leg amputee LW3 classified Paralympic alpine skier from Australia. Mayberry lost both legs after contracting meningococcal disease when he was sixteen years old. This experiences led him to study medicine, and he attended Griffith University and the University of Sydney where Mayberry pursued health science courses. Beyond the classroom, he has written a paper on meningococcal disease, worked part-time on research about the disease, and talked about his experiences at a conference.
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 suffered 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.
LW3 is a para-Alpine and para-Nordic standing skiing sport class defined by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for skiers with a disability affecting both legs, with double below knee amputation or a combined strength total for both legs of 60, with 80 as the baseline for people without disabilities. For international skiing competitions, classification is done through IPC Alpine Skiing or IPC Nordic Skiing. The classification has two subclasses for para-Alpine skiing: LW3.1 which is for people with double below the knee amputations or similar disabilities, and LW3.2 which is for people with cerebral palsy that involves moderate athetoid, moderate ataxic impairment or slight diplegic involvement.
Melissa Perrine is a B2 classified visually impaired para-alpine skier from Australia. She has competed at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi and 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang in the downhill, super-G, super combined, slalom and giant slalom events. 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. She has been selected with guide Bobbi Kelly for the 2022 Winter Paralympics.
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 the 2010 Winter Paralympics,2014 Winter Paralympics and 2018 Winter Paralympics but did not win a medal. He was Australian team co-captain at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. At the 2017 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy he won the gold medal in the Men's Super Combined Standing. He has been selected for his fourth Winter Games in Beijing.
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.
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.
Canada 
Germany (13)
Russia (38)
