Two American towns to host major disabled ski events

Two American towns to host major disabled ski events{mosimage}The United States will play host to two major disabled ski events this winter – alpine World Cup races Jan. 10-13 in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and Nordic World Disabled Championships March 9-21 in Fort Kent, Maine.

“These will be the first major disabled ski races in this country since the Paralympics in 2002,” U.S. Program Director Sandy Metzger said. “We’ve got two experienced organizing committees and we’ve gotten a lot of enthusiastic responses from other countries, who plan to have their skiers competing.”

The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, which will be working on conjunction with Ski Tam, the nonprofit cable TV trade organization, will host two giant slaloms and two slaloms. Howelsen Hill, the downtown complex which was the site of nordic combined World Cup events for nearly a decade, will be the slalom hill while the giant slaloms will be run at Steamboat resort, which has hosted a handful of alpine World Cup races.

The schedule:
Jan. 10-11 – GS at Mount Werner
Jan. 12-13 – Slalom at Howelsen Hill

“The first disabled alpine World Cup races were held in Colorado in December 1998,” said Metzger, who was on the Breckenridge organizing committee for those historic races. “We had races the next season in Breck and then at Snowbasin, north of Salt Lake City for the ‘test events’ in 2001 before the Paralympics. So, it’s a great opportunity for all of us.”

Head Coach Kevin Jardine added, “We’ve heard from a lot of countries and there should be a huge participation – we’re expecting more than 100 men and women, which is quite a field.”

The nordic World Championships in northern Maine, being run by the Maine Winter Sports Center, will be the second time the United States has staged the nordic disabled Worlds. The 1990 championships were held in Jackson, N.H., and cross country “test events” were held in 2001 on the ’02 Olympic trails at Soldier Hollow, Utah.

Officials are finalizing details on the championships. For more, visit this site.

“Over the last five years, we’ve had the greatest success for U.S. disabled cross country skiers,” said Head Coach Jon Kreamelmeyer. “These championships will give us a good line on how we stand against everyone with the 2006 Paralympics less than 12 months off, at that point. We’re excited to be hosting them.”