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Para Nordic

Paralympic Nordic skiing competition is open to male and female athletes with physical disabilities such as amputation/limb loss, blindness/visual impairment, spinal cord injury/wheelchair-users and cerebral palsy/brain injury/stroke.
Cnossen Tallies 3rd Medal of PyeongChang Paralympics; Soule and Arendz Take Bronze

2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): 10/12.5 k biathlon races Amid soft and slow conditions at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre on Tuesday, American Dan Cnossen raced to his third-straight medal in as many races at the 2018 Paralympics, claiming silver in the men’s 12.5-kilometer sitting biathlon race just ahead of his U.S. Paralympics Nordic teammate and fellow military veteran Andy Soule, who earned bronze. Cnossen, a retired Navy SEAL, previously won gold in Sunday’s 15...

McKeever Wins Record-Breaking 14th Paralympic Medal, 11th Gold

2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): 15/20 k visually impaired and standing races Make that record-breaking medal No. 14 for Brian McKeever. In his fifth Paralympics, the 38-year-old Canadian raced to the 11th gold medal of his career (and 14th medal total) on Monday at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. He did so in the 20-kilometer visually impaired freestyle cross-country race with his guides Graham Nishikawa and Russell Kennedy, who traded guiding responsibilities during...

Gretsch Scores Second Gold, Cnossen Silver, Masters Bronze in PyeongChang

2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): 12/15 k sitting cross-country races It was a gold, silver and bronze day for the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team on Sunday at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, as Kendall Gretsch raced to her second-straight victory in as many races, Dan Cnossen took silver and Oksana Masters claimed bronze in the cross-country distance events. A day after achieving a won the sitting biathlon sprint to open the Paralympics, also won...

Gretsch, Cnossen Nab Historic Biathlon Golds at Paralympics

2018 Winter Paralympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): Biathlon sprints The 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, opened in a big way for the U.S. and Canadian Paralympic nordic and biathlon teams on Saturday, with Kendall Gretsch and Dan Cnossen winning the U.S.A.’s first-ever gold medals in biathlon, and Canada’s Mark Arendz racing to silver for his third Paralympic biathlon medal and Collin Cameron becoming the first Canadian man to medal in a Paralympic sit-ski race. In...

Kennedy Headed to Paralympics as McKeever’s Second Guide

Picture trying to ski after staring directly at the sun. Bushes blend into the snow. Turns become an illusion; one second they are there and the next they are not. If it sounds somewhat impossible, consider it’s the field of vision Canadian Paralympic cross-country skier Brian McKeever has had for the past 19 years of his professional cross-country career. “If you stare at the sun for a long time and turn away, you get these...

Wednesday Workout: Preseason Agility with U.S. Paralympics Nordic

It’s that time of year when everyone’s raring to get on snow. Let’s say you’re lucky enough to find some — even just a few hundred meters — like the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team did late last month at a training camp at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. Seven athletes — a combination of high-performance and development skiers — spent a week at Van Ho from Oct. 23-29 for the nordic center’s earliest...

South Korea’s Medal Hope, Eui Hyun Sin Preps for Home Paralympics

For a few days at the end of January, a sea of stringed kites fills the skies of many cities in South Korea. The normally crowded streets of downtown Seoul — the country’s capital — empty and become almost devoid of people. Many of the residents are indoors with their families, or en route to the hometowns of relatives, all in order to celebrate Seollal, one of the nation’s greatest Korean holidays. Generally spanning a...

South Korean Para Team Takes Spring Training to Casper

Winter closed with a bang at Casper Mountain Biathlon Club (CMBC) in Casper, Wyo., as the nordic center hosted World Para Nordic Skiing NorAm & U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing Biathlon Nationals with four races in three days earlier this month. “Although the event was small, the competition was quality,” CMBC Managing Director Cathy Rosser wrote in an email. On March 31, the day before the first event, athletes trained as a foot of snow fell on...

FasterSkier’s U.S. Breakthroughs of the Year: Chelsea Holmes & Scott Patterson

With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to breakthrough U.S. skiers. Previous categories: Collegiate Skiers of the Year | U.S. Continental Skiers of the Year |...

FasterSkier’s Para-Nordic Skiers of the Year: Oksana Masters and Brian McKeever

With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding Para-Nordic skiers on the IPC World Cup circuit.  Previous categories: Collegiate Skiers of the Year | U.S....

Golden Biathlon Breakthrough for Masters, Second Gold for Arendz and McKeever of 2017 IPC World Champs

The 2017 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Nordic Skiing World Championships concluded this past weekend Feb. 18-19 in Finsterau, Germany with a biathlon sprint and a middle-distance cross-country event. Claiming their second gold medals of the week were Oksana Masters, of the U.S., and Canada’s Mark Arendz. Race recap and results below. *** The U.S. Paralympics Nordic Team’s Oksana Masters is plenty used to winning cross-country events. She ended last season undefeated in every cross-country race and...

Another Gold for Masters; Historic Relay Medal for Canada; McKeever Wins 20 k at IPC World Champs

After a rest day, Paralympic athletes returned to the nordic venue in Finsterau, Germany, for Days 3, 4, and 5 of the 2017 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Nordic Skiing Championships. Long-distance biathlon races took place Tuesday, cross-country relays on Wednesday and individual cross-country races on Thursday. *** At the finish of Tuesday’s 15-kilometer individual biathlon race, Canada’s Mark Arendz could only think about one thing: his miss. But later, with his Canadian Para-Nordic Skiing press release. “But...

19 Sample Bottles from Seven Paralympic Skiers Tampered With in Sochi

Anti-doping sample bottles belonging to seven Russian skiers at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games were tampered with, according to the McLaren report. Russian cross-country skiers won 12 gold medals, nine silver and 11 bronze at those Games. Some of the same athletes also helped win 12 gold medals, 11 silver and seven bronze in biathlon. The report, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and undertaken by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, found...

Masters Makes It a Triple, Bound for Rio Paralympics in Handcycling

After competing at the 2012 London Paralympics in rowing and 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympic in skiing, Oksana Masters is tripling up after qualifying for the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympics in handcycling. “It’s going to be a good challenge and I’m really looking forward to being able to represent the U.S. Paralympic team and to be able to represent it in more than one sport," she said.