Bryan Peterson, a broker with Mason Morse in Aspen, has been selected as a Coach for the Paralympic Team in Vancouver in March 2010. While there, Bryan’s agreed to be a correspondent on the latest happenings and keep us up to date.
From Bryan Peterson:
All the athletes, staff, and coaches, from all the countries involved in alpine or cross country are staying in the athlete village a few miles from Whistler Village where the alpine events are being held. The athletes and staff involved in curling and sledge hockey are staying in the Vancouver athlete village.
Opening ceremonies were Friday night in Vancouver at the same stadium we all saw the Olympic ceremonies on television. It holds around 60,000, and it was sold out for the Paralympic opening ceremonies as well. Pretty amazing! The host country and all the Canadians in general are very welcoming, always smiling, and simply fun to be around. It’s a “huge” and exciting event (to give an example: opening ceremonies for the Paralympics in Salt Lake, 2002, had more people attending than the Olympics).
We arrived on March 7th and had two days to get organized prior to downhill training which started on March 10. We recieved approximately 3 feet of snow Thursday and Friday (downhill training was cancelled), and due to fog or low hanging cloud cover, were not able to hold the downhill race Saturday. It’s been rescheduled for next Thursday. Due to of all the snow in past days and in the forecast, it was decided to move all the technical events up to today through Wednesday (slalom and giant slalom). Then we’ll race the speed events Thursday through next Saturday, with the Super Combined as the last event on Sunday (a race with one run of super G and one run of slalom, combined time).
There are three catagories of athletes: visually impaired (they ski with a guide), sitting (monoskiers, comprised of athletes without the ability to race standing up or us their lower extremeties), and standing (comprised of athletes who don’t have an arm, or have only one leg,…… and those who may have a genetic physical challenge like cerebral palsy….).
You will also find photos of athletes in events, and other photos of all the happenings and environment at: http://www.vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/photos/allparaphotosgallery_170524cf-p2-GQ.html
People can view all the Paralympic events either live or click on the links for previous events to watch them again. www.paralympicsport.tv (Including opening ceremonies).
Best,
Bryan
