Kiwi medal hopes for Paralympics
The euphoria of the Winter Olympic games bronze medals has cooled down, so now it is time for New Zealand’s paralympians to heat things up in PyeongChang.
The Winter Paralympics start on Friday and will run through to March 18, with three Kiwi medal prospects competing.
The New Zealand team is made up of just three, alpine skiers Adam Hall, Corey Peters and para snowboarder Carl Murphy. Between them they already boast a gold and a silver medal from two past Paralympic Winter Games.
Vancouver 2010 gold medallist Adam Hall is ranked third and eighth respectively in the world in the men’s downhill standing and slalom standing respectively. He will contest in four alpine skiing events, including downhill, slalom, super-G and super combined.
The Dunedin-born champion has dominated the the sport class LW1 internationally since 2005. This classification is for Para athletes with a physical impairment that strongly affects both legs, such as the significant muscle weakness caused by Hall’s congenital condition, Spina bifida. Hall has represented New Zealand three times at the Paralympics in Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. He specialises in the technical disciplines but recently has also achieved top results in speed disciplines.
In 2016, Hall won gold in slalom and super-G at the World Cup in Aspen and last year, won a slalom bronze at the 2017 world para alpine skiing championships in Italy.
Taranaki sit skier Corey Peter’s silver medal on debut at Sochi 2014 saw him return home as the only New Zealand medallist.
Ranked third and eighth for the super-G sitting and downhill sitting, he will contest both events and the men’s super-combined and giant slalom sitting.
Peters competes in Sport Class LW12-1, for athletes with an
impairment affecting both legs. Peters’ sustained a crushed spinal cord in 2009, following a motocross accident.
He won a gold and two silvers at recent World Cups in 2017 and two silvers at the 2017 world para alpine skiing championships.
Wanaka architectural designer and father of three Carl Murphy is the only para snowboarder to have represented New Zealand at a Paralympic Winter Games, finishing fourth on debut at Sochi 2014.
He is ranked seventh in the men’s snowboard cross and ninth in the banked slalom. He competes in Sport Class SB LL, for para snowboarders with leg impairments. Murphy was born with a lower leg deficiency and competes wearing a custom-built carbon fibre prosthetic.
His men’s banked slalom bronze medal three weeks ago in Canada makes him a favourite.
Ashley Light, New Zealand Paralympic Team Chef de Mission, said there was a high chance of the three competitors adding to New Zealand’s medal tally from the Winter Olympics.
A field of 670 athletes in 80 events will compete in six sports in 10 days – alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, snowboard and wheelchair curling.
The opening ceremony starts at midnight (NZT) on Friday.