This year’s International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cup champions have all crossed the finish line, marking the end of the 2008/2009 international-elite ski season.
In Bonn, Germany, the alpine-skiing World Cup season ended on March 14. A total of 130 athletes from 19 countries came to Whistler Creekside, Vancouver, Canada, for the final races in downhill, super-G, super combined, giant slalom, and slalom.
With her first-place finishes in all five giant-slalom and slalom races, Canada’s Lauren Woolstencroft became the dominating athlete at Whistler, and subsequently the dominating alpine skier of the season. In the women’s standing category, Woolstencroft won the World Cup rankings in slalom, giant slalom, super-G, and downhill, and the overall World Cup ranking for all races combined. Melania Corradini from Italy won the ranking in the super-combined event.
Germany’s Gerd Schoenfelder was as successful as Woolstencroft in the men’s standing category. Schoenfelder won the final giant-slalom and slalom races in Whistler and finished first in all World Cup point lists, except for the slalom point list, where France’s Vincent Gauthier-Manuel scored first place, followed by New Zealand’s Adam Hallm, with Schoenfelder in third.
The women’s sitting category was dominated by Austrian Claudia Loesch and American Laurie Stephens. Loesch placed third in the final giant-slalom race of the season, first in the slalom, and as a result, she placed first in the slalom World Cup rankings. Loesch also won the super-combined World Cup and the overall World Cup ranking. Stephens took first place in the March 13 giant slalom and was first in the downhill and the giant-slalom World Cup point lists.
The men’s sitting category saw many different winners this season. The slalom World Cup point list was won by Harald Eder (AUT), with Japan’s Taiki Morii placing first in the giant-slalom World Cup point list. The speed disciplines were dominated by American skiers, with Christopher Devlin-Young winning the super-G World Cup and Tyler Walker taking the downhill World Cup. German Martin Braxenthaler finished first in the super-combined World Cup and managed to repeat his win in the overall World Cup from last season, just 13 points ahead of Morii.
After winning the last giant-slalom race of the season on March 13, Canadian Vivian Forest and her guide, Lindsay Debou, won the giant-slalom, downhill, super-combined and overall World Cup rankings this season in the women’s visually impaired category. Henrieta Farkasova and her guide, Natalia Subrtova, from Slovakia, won Saturday’s slalom and finished first in the super-G World Cup point list. The slalom World Cup was won by Anna Cohi from Spain and her guide, Raquel Garcia.
Jon Santacana of Spain, along with his guide, Miguel Galindo, dominated the men’s visually impaired category, winning the overall World Cup rankings, and the giant-slalom, super-G, downhill and super-combined World Cup point lists. The slalom World Cup was won by Jakub Krako (SVK) and his guide, Juraj Medera, who won Friday’s giant-slalom race.
The overall nation ranking was taken, for the first time, by Canada, followed by Austria and the United States.
Two days after the one-year countdown celebrations for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games completed its operational testing at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals. The event also marks the final Paralympic-sport event for VANOC, and the last event at Whistler Creekside, the official competition venue for alpine skiing in 2010.
Nordic divisions of the World Cup wrapped up on the slopes of Mt. Washington, Vancouver, on March 11-14. The biathlon and cross-country-skiing World Cup finals were the final series of World Cup races, with athletes from 19 different nations at the Canadian venue in Comox Valley.
After the Mt. Washington events wound down, officials calculated the final rankings for the World Cup series, encompassing all events in the Mt. Washington and Whistler venues, plus those in the 2009 Paralympic Winter World Cup in Solleftea, Sweden.
Finishing atop the list in the women’s sitting cross-country skiing category was Liudmila Vauchok from Belarus, with a total of 580 points. Following Vauchok were Monica Bascio from the United States and Olena Iurkovska from Ukraine. In the men’s sitting category, Irek Zaripov from Russia finished first with a total of 380 points, followed by Dzmitry Loban from Belarus, and Roman Petushkov from Russia.
In the women’s standing cross-country-skiing category, Anna Burmistrova from Russia finished first with 340 points, followed by Larisa Varona from Belarus and Katarzyna Rogowiec from Poland. In the men’s standing category, Ilkka Tuomisto from Finland finished first with 336 points, followed by Yoshihiro Nitta from Japan and Nils-Erik Ulset from Norway.
In the women’s visually impaired cross-country skiing category, Yadviha Skorabahataya with guide Vasili Haurukovich from Belarus finished first with 410 points. Coming in second and third were Tatiana Ilyuchenko with guide Valery Koshkin from Russia and Robbi Weldon with guide Brian Berry from Canada. In the men’s visually impaired category, Vasili Shaptsiaboi with guide Mikalai Shablouski from Belarus finished first with 405 points, followed by Russia’s Nikolay Polukhin with guide Andrey Tokarev and Evgeniy Safronov with guide Salavat Gumerov.
In the women’s sitting biathlon race, Olena Iurkovska from Ukraine was at the top of the list with 340 points, followed by Irina Polyakova from Russia and Lyudmyla Pavlenko from Ukraine. In the men’s sitting category, Georges Bettega from France took first with 385 points, followed by Irek Zaripov from Russia and Trygve Larson from Norway.
The women’s biathlon standing category saw Oleksandra Kononova from Ukraine take first with 400 points, followed by Shoko Ota from Japan with 365 points, and Pamela Novaglio from Italy with 273 points. The men’s standing category saw Nils-Erik Ulset from Norway take first with 460 points, followed by Yannick Bourseaux from France and Grygorii Vovchynskyi from Ukraine.
Yadviha Skorabahataya and guide Vasili Haurukovich from Belarus once again took first position in the women’s biathlon visually impaired category with 386 points. She was followed by Russia’s Tatiana Ilyuchenko with guide Valery Koshkin and Liubov Vasileva with guide Viacheslav Goldinov. In the men’s visually impaired category, Thomas Clarion from France with guide Tommy Terraz took first position with 435 points. He was followed by Irek Mannanov with guide Salavat Gumerov from Russia and Vitaliy Lukyanenko with guide Volodymyr Ivanov from Ukraine.
For complete results and World Cup rankings, visit www.paralympic.org