LIGHTING THE TORCH

Winter Paralympics Draws 500 Athletes

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By Emily Keller

From March 12 to 21, more than 500 athletes with disabilities from all parts of the world took part in the Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.

John Furlong, chief executive officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for this year’s games, said in his speech at the opening ceremony, “Let these games also serve to honor and recognize men and women of sport the world over who have made it their personal mission in life to use sport to build better lives, to inspire children, to bring hope and inspire peace – men and women who have dedicated themselves to helping the remarkable athletes gathered here to achieve their dreams.”

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki led the White House delegation, which also included Kareem Dale, special assistant to the president for disability policy, to the opening ceremonies.

Former Paralympics winners Mike May, who won the bronze medal in Alpine Skiing in 1984, Bonnie St. John, the 1984 silver medalist and twotime bronze medalist in Slalom and Giant Slalom and Melissa Stockwell, the 2008 summer Paralympic swimmer and an Iraq veteran, were also part the U.S. delegation.

Olympic games for people with disabilities, now called the Paralympics, began in Rome in 1960. The Paralympics officially took place for the first time in 1976 in Sweden and Toronto.

Athletes from 40 countries competed this year in Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, wheelchair curling, ice sledge hockey and biathlon. The competition was divided by abilities and disabilities such as visually impaired, sitting and standing categories.

The U.S. teams included 50 athletes from 20 states, with 17 people competing in the games for the first time as well as five U.S. veterans.

The Paralympics were broadcast on NBC Sports, Universal Sports, and online at www.UniversalSports.com and www.usparalympics.org.

On the first day of competition, the U.S. teams beat Korea in wheelchair curling as well as sledge Hockey, with a 9-6 score in hockey.

Both teams included members from New York and New Jersey (see results sidebar for more details).

In the curling match, Peter Quartuccio of the Wheelchair Sports Federation, said, “It was back and forth the entire game, with neither squad able to pull ahead by taking advantage of the other’s missed opportunities. The most consisimpaired and Akiro Kano of Japan won the gold medal in the sitting super-G. The Biathlon gold medals went to Germany, the Russian Federation, Norway and Ukraine. Andy Soule of the U.S. took home the single U.S. Biathlon medal, a bronze medal for the 2.4 km pursuit – sitting. Cross-country skiers received a total of 60 medals, though none went to the U.S. tent play-er on either side was almost certainly Team U.S.A.’s vice skip James Pierce. He was nothing short of an assassin down the stretch of the game, making throw after clutch throw.”

The U.S. Alpine skiing teams of 34 athletes included two local competitors – Ralph Green of Brooklyn, N.Y. and Vail, Colo. in the standing competition and Caitlin Sarubbi of Brooklyn in the visually impaired category.

More than 1,000 athletes and team members attended the closing ceremonies at the Whistler Medals Plaza on March 21. According to a news report, Vancouver residents and eight Red Coated Royal Canadian Mounted Police led the athletes through the Paralympic village to the event, where they were officially greeted and celebrated.