About

Canada’s Para-Alpine Legacy

Para-alpine skiing was one of the original sports at the first Paralympic Winter Games in 1976. John Gow won gold at those Games and became Canada’s first Paralympic para-alpine champion. Since then, Canada has won a para-alpine medal at every Paralympic Winter Games and has earned more than 100 medals in the sport. Para-alpine is Canada’s most successful Paralympic Winter sport, and the team added five more medals at Milano Cortina 2026.

That success has been built by generations of athletes, guides, coaches, clubs, adaptive programs and families. Alpine Canada now works with partners across the country to help more people enter the sport and, if they choose, progress toward international competition.

About the Sport

The goal is simple: get from the start to the finish as quickly as possible. Athletes race on the same types of courses used in alpine ski racing. Equipment and rules may be adapted to meet an athlete’s needs. An athlete may race standing, use a sit-ski, or ski with a guide.

Disciplines

1. Downhill: The longest and fastest race.
2. Super-G: A speed race with more turns than downhill.
3. Giant slalom: A two-run race with wider turns.
4. Slalom: A two-run race with short, quick turns.
5. Alpine combined: One speed run and one slalom run, with the times added together.

Classification

Classification helps make competition fair. First, it confirms that an athlete has an impairment that is eligible for para-alpine skiing under the rules of FIS, the governing body for ski racing. It then looks at how that impairment affects the movements and skills used in ski racing. Trained classifiers complete this assessment and assign the athlete a sport class.

Athletes race in one of three categories: visually impaired, standing or sit-skiing. Each category contains several sport classes. Each class describes the athlete’s level of physical or visual impairment.

Visually Impaired

Athletes with an eligible vision impairment race with a sighted guide. The guide skis ahead and communicates information about direction, rhythm, terrain and the course. The athlete and guide compete together as a team.

1. AS1: Near-total or total vision impairment. Athletes in this class race wearing blacked-out goggles.
2. AS2: Severe vision impairment.
3. AS3: Moderate vision impairment.
4. AS4: The least severe vision impairment within the eligible range.

*AS1-4: Athletes vision is constricted to a diameter of less than seventy degrees and/or they have a static visual acuity of equal to LogMAR 0.6, or worse. *

Standing

Standing athletes race upright. Depending on their needs, they may use one or two skis, poles, outriggers or other approved equipment.

1. LW1: Impairment significantly affecting both legs.
2. LW2: Impairment affecting one leg; athletes generally race on one ski with outriggers.
3. LW3: Impairment affecting both legs, generally with less activity limitation than LW1.
4. LW4: Impairment affecting one leg; athletes generally race on two skis.
5. LW5/7: Impairment affecting both arms; athletes generally race without poles.
6. LW6/8: Impairment affecting one arm; athletes generally race with one pole.
7. LW9: Combined impairment affecting the arms and legs.

Some standing classes have smaller subgroups to describe the athlete’s activity limitation more closely.

Sit-Ski

Athletes race in a sit-ski: a fitted seat mounted over one ski. They use outriggers for balance, turning and recovery.

1. LW10-1 and LW10-2: Athletes with little or no functional trunk control.
2. LW11: Athletes with partial trunk control.
3. LW12-1 and LW12-2: Athletes with greater trunk control and lower-limb impairments.

How Classification and Factors Work Together

Classification places the athlete in a sport class. That sport class is then connected to a number called a factor. The factor is used because athletes from different classes race together within the same standing, sitting or vision-impaired category.

After the race, the athlete’s actual time is multiplied by the factor for their class. The result is the factored time used for the final placing. For example, 60 seconds multiplied by 0.90 becomes 54 seconds. Official factors vary by class and event and can be updated as more race data become available.

In short: classification determines the sport class, the sport class determines the factor, and the factor is used to calculate a fair result. It does not change the athlete’s actual run or measure their skiing ability.