Disabled Skiing

Paralympic Alpine Skiing - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paralympic alpine skiing is an adaptation of alpine skiing for athletes with a disability. Paralympic alpine skiing is one of the sports in the Paralympic Winter Games. It is governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) under the auspices of the International Ski Federation (FIS).

In addition to the Paralympic Games, elite disabled ski racing includes the Disabled Alpine Skiing World Championships (held every four years from 1980 to 2004 and every two years beginning in 2009) and the IPC Disabled Alpine World Cup, an annual international racing circuit. Below the World Cup level, races are held at the Continental Cup level. The Europa (or European) Cup is contested in Europe, and the Nor-Am Cup in North America; additionally, sub-World Cup-level races are also held in East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South America.

In 1984, giant slalom races for four categories of male standing skiers were held as a demonstration sport at the Winter Olympics. In 1988 a disabled GS was again demonstrated, this time for men and women but limited to "three-trackers" (above-knee amputees).

Disabled ski racers compete in three different medal categories: standing, sitting, and visually impaired. Each of these groups is divided into three to seven classes, some of which are further subdivided into two or three sub-classes. Within each of the three major categories, times are compared by means of a "factor system" that attempts to put athletes with different disabilities on a level playing field with one another by multiplying the time of each racer in a given class or sub-class by a fixed number between zero and one called a factor. The result, known as "adjusted time," is the time that commonly appears on result lists for disabled ski races.

The disability categories for both disabled alpine and nordic ski racing are as follows:

**Standing classes**
Class	Description	Typical equipment
LW 1	Double leg amputation above the knee, moderate to severe cerebral palsy, or equivalent impairment	Two skis, two outriggers
LW 2	Single leg amputation above the knee	One ski, two outriggers
LW 3	Double leg amputation below the knee, mild cerebral palsy, or equivalent impairment	Two skis, two poles
LW 4	Single leg amputation below the knee	Two skis, two poles
LW 5/7-1	Double arm amputation above the elbow	Two skis, no poles
LW 5/7-2	Double arm amputation, one above and one below the elbow	Two skis, no poles
LW 5/7-3	Double arm amputation below the elbow	Two skis, no poles
LW 6/8-1	Single arm amputation above the elbow	Two skis, one pole
LW 6/8-2	Single arm amputation below the elbow	Two skis, one pole
LW 9-1	Amputation or equivalent impairment of one arm and one leg above the knee	Choice of equipment
LW 9-2	Amputation or equivalent impairment of one arm and one leg below the knee	Choice of equipment

**Sitting classes (monoskiers)**
Class	Description
LW 10-1	Paraplegia with no upper abdominal function and no functional sitting balance
LW 10-2	Paraplegia with some upper abdominal function and no functional sitting balance
LW 11	Paraplegia with fair functional sitting balance
LW 12-1	Paraplegia with some leg function and good sitting balance
LW 12-2	Double leg amputation above the knees