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≡ PARALYMPIC WINTER DATES ≡
Canadian Paralympic skier Kurt Oatway, a gold and bronze medal winner in his career, said last week of the snow conditions in Cortina (ITA):
“These Games need to be held a month earlier. Every year it’s soft, it’s slush. It’s spring skiing, and that’s not really real ski racing.”
Of his five events at the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, he won a bronze in the Sitting Downhill, was eighth in the Sitting Slalom and did not finish in three other events.
American snowboarder Amy Purdy, a three-time Paralympic medal winner in 2014 and 2018, retired in 2022, but commented in a video:
“I don’t believe that the Paralympics should be happening right now.
“You have athletes with disabilities who have trained their entire lives to showcase their abilities and what the possibilities are, just like the Olympians do. But they show up in the worst conditions ever.
“Snow gets so soft and so slushy, it grabs onto your snowboard, it grabs onto your skis. Imagine being a cross-country skier, and not having arms, and getting stuck in slush.”
Many more had similar comments.
A study funded by the International Olympic Committee and published last November has been cited for the proposition that there soon will be no more places to hold the Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games. The Sports Examiner’s review of the study revealed this as the actual conclusion:
“Under a more probable mid-range emission scenario, 52 locations remain climate-reliable for the OWG in the 2050s and 46 in the 2080s. The scheduling of the PWG in March put it at higher risk, with only 22 climate-reliable locations in the 2050s and 16 in the 2080s.
“When a more stringent minimum snow depth requirement was applied, the number of reliable locations declined slightly for both OWG and PWG, signifying the importance of advanced sustainable snowmaking as an adaptation strategy.
“While it is inevitable that climate change will impact the geography and development of winter sports to some degree, a reassuring finding is that even with a diminished pool of potential host locations, with continued adaptation, the OWG-PWG can endure as a genuinely global celebration of sport.”
The real issue isn’t cold or snow, it’s the time on the calendar and the Winter Paralympics have always come after the Olympic Winter Games, which are held in February. So, given the turnover time, that places the Winter Paralympics in March.
There are all kinds of solutions being proposed. Move the Olympic Winter Games into January and have the Winter Paralympics in February. Put the Paralympics first, in January. Hold them concurrently.
There is a better approach.
One of the problems for the Paralympic Winter Games is that it comes so close to the Olympic Winter Games that it is overshadowed. There is also the issue of qualifying events and their schedule in the lead-up to the Games.
The answer to all of these problems is really quite simple: move the Paralympic Winter Games to the year before the Olympic Winter Games.
Consider the numbers for 2026:
● Olympic: 2,884 entries from 92 delegations
● Paralympic: 611 athletes + 84 guides from 55 delegations
● Olympic: 116 events in 16 disciplines
● Paralympic: 79 events in six disciplines
● Olympic: 5,560 beds in three Villages and 11 hotels
● Paralympic: 1,823 beds in three Villages
The Winter Paralympics makes sense as a stand-alone event in the year prior to the Olympic Winter Games:
● It creates significant promotional opportunities for the Paralympic Movement, away and apart from the Olympic Games.
● The size and scale are not so overwhelming as to require the Olympic-sized build-up beforehand.
● Innovations directed to the Paralympic Games can be offered, unencumbered by having to deal with a much larger Olympic Games beforehand.
And it solves the snow and cold issues, while also informing on any changes needed for the Olympic Winter Games in the year following. Moreover, it eliminates the need for test events for those sports which will use the same venues for the Paralympic and Olympic Winter programs, and will save and money for the organizing committee.
Such a change will also force organizing committees to be ready earlier, a desirable situation from the standpoint of the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee and the various International Federations.
There are real positives to this, along with the negatives of change being difficult for everyone.
¶
Is such a thing possible? Not right away, and certainly not for the French Alps 2030 organizers, who are still getting their act together and don’t need any more pressure.
The Utah 2034 organizers could absolutely pull this off and in style, but they are already contracted to February and March dates for the 2034. As a way to further energize their existing civic, volunteer and professional base, a 2033 Winter Paralympics might be interesting. The IOC is working with the possible Swiss organizers for 2038 and such an arrangement would be very possible there.
So it can be done soon, but not right away.
It should be noted that while this kind of change could significantly improve conditions for the Winter Games, it does not appear warranted – now – for the Paralympic Games.
At Paris 2024, there were 4,433 Paralympic athletes and 549 events in 22 sports and 18 venues. That’s a lot to build up a year in advance of an even bigger Olympic Games and then tear down. So, the summer Paralympic Games needs to stay – for now – after the Olympics are held and take advantage of the existing infrastructure and the systems which worked already.
Rich Perelman
Editor
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