Winter Paralympics
March 11, 2010
Around 5,000 performers ranging in age from four to 92 wowed the audience at the BC Place Stadium during an opening ceremony which organizers described as a family-friendly show that celebrates the origins of the international sporting event.
Once the festivities are over, hundreds of athletes with physical disabilities from all over the world will then begin competing on the slopes of Whistler and on rinks in Vancouver in the quest for medals.
There have been plenty of grumbles in the run-up to the games - mostly calls to combine the able-bodied and Paralympics, and the disparity in TV coverage and revenue. But once the action begins, the politics will hopefully be forgotten.
All eyes will then be turned on the stars of the show; those athletes identified as the major medal hopes at this year's Games.
Germany's Schoenfelder leads the skiing pack
On the men's side of the competition, Germany's Gerd Schoenfelder will be one to watch in alpine skiing. The 39-year-old single arm amputee is one of the most successful Paralympic skiers in history with 17 Paralympic medals, including 12 gold, three silver and two bronze.
After a glittering 2010 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cup tour which saw him take a gold and a silver in the slalom, and three golds in the giant slalom, Schoenfelder - who has also won the World Cup overall title in each of the past eight seasons - is expected to add more gongs to his growing collection of medals in Vancouver.
Canada's Brian McKeever is one of the host country's biggest medal hopes in the Games. Less than a month after just missing out on becoming the first athlete to compete in both Olympic and Paralympic Games, the legally blind cross-country skiing and biathlon star is hoping to put that disappointment behind him with victory in Whistler.
Left with only 10 per cent of his vision due to Stargardt's disease at age 19, McKeever was an unused alternate last month but will be a star in his own right as he begins his third Paralympic Games. McKeever won two golds in cross-country and a silver in biathlon in Salt Lake City, as well as two golds and a silver in cross-country and a bronze in the biathlon in Torino.
McKeever's principal rival in the cross-country skiing and biathlon events will be Russia's Irek Zaripov. Despite Zaripov finishing out of the medals in Torino last time, many experts believe he is a cross-country gold medal favourite heading into Vancouver.
The double amputee sit-skier made it three cross-country world championships in a row last year and is arriving in Vancouver coming off a World Cup season with two impressive, 45-second-plus-margin victories in cross-country, as well as a victory each in the 6.6 km biathlon and 12.5km biathlon.
North American hockey giants set to heat up Paralympics
US-Canadian rivalries will likely resume in the sledge hockey event, with Team USA boasting the speedy, exciting 22-year-old Alexi Salamone while Canada will field three of the most feared attackers in international sledge hockey with Brad Bowden, Billy Bridges and Greg Westlake leading the line.
Double amputee Salamone is off to a blazing start in his Team USA career, with seven goals and six assists in 15 games. He and his team-mates, including the experienced goalie Steve Cash, are expected to battle towards a final showdown with the Canadians.
If fans do indeed get that dream final, the physical play and booming slap shot of Bridges, the lightning fast speed and puck handling ability of Bowden, and the scoring ability of Westlake ought to make the latest installment of North America's hockey rivalry a gripping affair.
Old and new rivalries take to the slopes in ladies' skiing events
In the women's competition, the most talked-about competitions leading up to the games have been the coming duels on the trails of Whistler, where Russia's much-fancied Anna Burmistrova, a triple medal winner in Turin, will be vying for gold against main rival Yuliya Batenkova of Ukraine.
Burmistrova's single World Cup loss this season was inflicted by Batenkova and both partial arm amputees will be looking for the edge in the too-close-to-call cross-country skiing event. Burmistrova will want to add to her gold and two silvers from Turin, while Batenkova aims for her first gold after winning silver and two bronze four years ago.
Laurie Stephens, two-time alpine sit skiing gold medalist in Turin, is heading to Vancouver with hopes of extending her haul. But the six-time World Cup champion from the US faces stiff competition this time out from Austria's Claudia Loesch, a Paralympic bronze medallist in Turin who has had an impressive season to date.
Elsewhere on the piste, Solene Jambaque from France will be attempting to lay to rest an early season run of bad performances and continue the subsequent form which has made her a medal hope in the alpine skiing events. After missing the podium in her first three speed events on the World Cup tour, Jambaque roared back to win the next five events. With gold in the downhill and super-G in Turin, as well as bronze in the giant slalom and silver in the slalom, the French skier will again be one to watch.
Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Matt Hermann