The Winter Paralympics has been held for 12 sessions, China’s first participation in 2002
The Winter Paralympic Games are a type of winter sports in which the athletes are disabled. As of 2018, the Winter Paralympic Games have been held for 12 times, and it has been less than half a century since it was first held in 1976. The Chinese Paralympic sports delegation participated in the Paralympic Winter Games for the first time in the history of the 2002 Winter Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City, USA at the beginning of this century.
After the end of World War II, disabled winter sports developed as many wounded soldiers and ordinary people tried to get back into skiing. One of the early pioneers of disabled winter sports was Sepp Zwicknag, who lost his legs in Austria and skied with prosthetic limbs. Later, there were innovations in the design of ski sports equipment, such as the creation of three-track skiing with crutches, that is, a one-legged athlete wears one ski on one foot, and then uses two crutches equipped with small skis, so that the snow Three traces were left on the ground. This equipment revolution led to the first skiing competition in Austria in February 1948 for 17 disabled people. The competition was so popular among disabled skiers that the first Austrian Triple Ski Championships were held the following year in Badgastein, Austria.
The above-mentioned winter sports for the disabled, which originated in Europe, became the basis for organizing large-scale winter sports events involving disabled people. In the 1970s, ski events, which were classified according to disability categories, began to be held. In 1974, the first Paralympic Ski World Championships was held in Grand-Bornand, France. The competition consisted of two events: alpine skiing and Nordic cross-country skiing, and was attended by amputees and visually impaired athletes. From February 22 to 29, 1976, the first Winter Paralympic Games were held in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. A total of 250 visually impaired and amputee athletes from 17 countries and regions participated. The first Winter Paralympic Games set up two official events, alpine skiing and cross-country skiing, and a performance event, sleigh racing. As of Pyeongchang 2018, the Winter Paralympics have been held for 12 times.
The Chinese disabled winter sports started relatively late. At the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City, USA, the Chinese sports delegation participated for the first time. By the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics four years ago, the Chinese team was participating for the fifth time. In the previous Winter Paralympics, the performance of Chinese athletes was not outstanding. In 2010, Peng Yuanyuan won the fifth place in women’s standing 5km traditional cross-country skiing at the Vancouver Winter Paralympics. In the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympic Games, the Chinese wheelchair curling team lost to the Canadian team in the semi-finals and finally won the fourth place. Although they missed the podium, this has created the Chinese team’s highest record in the history of the Winter Paralympic Games. Good results. In the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games, Chinese athlete Zheng Peng performed well in the men’s 15-kilometer cross-country skiing competition and won the fourth place. On March 17, 2018, the champion of the wheelchair curling event at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics was decided. The Chinese team narrowly defeated the Norwegian team 6-5 and won the gold medal, which is also the first gold medal won by the Chinese delegation at the Winter Paralympics.
On March 4, 2022, the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics will be held at the China National Stadium, and the competition will be held in Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. On March 13, the closing ceremony of the current Winter Paralympics will be held at the National Stadium.