Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games: the dual winter and summer stars

Oksana Masters, United States of America

Oksana Masters has ten Paralympic medals across four sports: biathlon and cross-country skiing at the Paralympic Winter Games, and rowing and cycling at the Summer Games.

But she hates nothing more than people assuming she is some kind of super human who only has to turn up to win.

The importance of others’ belief in her and her failure to sometimes believe in herself are recurring themes, as she told Olympics.com. That started with her mum, who “believed in me so much that I wanted to prove her right”.

She had both legs amputated at 14, and has hand impairments that mean she must tape on her skiing gloves and grips.

Masters won two cycling golds six months ago at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, just 100 days after surgery to remove lymph nodes and a tumour.

She had thought her chance at the Games was over.

But transitioning between four sports and between summer and winter disciplines has forged a tough cookie, whether Masters will admit it or not.

“That transition is not smooth, not cute, and not pretty,” Masters told Self.

“You’re, in theory, as fit as you can be for the summer sport, and then you go into your winter season sport. It’s as if you never worked out in your entire life.

“Cycling is all pushing, so it’s all shoulders, chest, and biceps. And skiing, you lose the chest and the biceps and the shoulders, and it’s more lats and core.”

Birgit Skarstein, Norway

Birgit Skarstein was Norway’s first ever Paralympic champion when she won the women’s single sculls PR1 at Tokyo 2020.

She was Norway’s flagbearer at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, where she finished seventh in the women’s 5km cross-country skiing.

And if anyone should doubt her versatility, she also starred in Norwegian television's Skal vi danse? (Shall We Dance?)

Skarstein was paralysed from the waist down by an incorrectly administered epidural injection following an accident in 2010.

She made her winter Paralympic debut at Sochi 2014, and only just missed the rowing podium at Rio 2016.

She has said that rowing is her priority. “I train and compete in skiing to become a better rower and find this to be a great combination,” she told World Rowing.

“Changing around sports and movements makes me able to train better, to train more, and to lower the risk of injuries. Rowing does make me a better skier as it gives me strength and endurance as well as a competitive mindset.

“Skiing gives me the hours and hours I need as base training.

She told Olympics.com that in prioritising Tokyo, she has made some choices that may dampen her chances in Beijing.

But she will doubtless take inspiration from her own review of her experience on Skal vi danse?

“Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean that it's not for real or that it doesn't exist, or that it can't be done.”

Jessica Gallagher, Australia

**Jessica Gallaghe**r’s career has been marked by a succession of first-time Australian achievements.

But when it comes to firsts, Gallagher speaks dreamily of her Paralympic Winter Games debut at in para alpine skiing Vancouver 2010.

“Vancouver being my first Winter Games, it really was this brand-new magical winter wonderland,” she told Paralympics Australia.

“I felt this really incredible energy because I knew that I was going to be making my Paralympic debut for Australia on my birthday.”

Gallagher’s slalom bronze in Vancouver made her the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Paralympic Winter Games.

She became the first athlete to represent Australia in both the Summer and Winter Games when she competed in the long jump and javelin at London 2012.

Finally, she became the first Australian to win medals at both versions of the Games, thanks to her bronze in the women’s 1km time trial in para-cycling.

She also won bronze in the women’s giant slalom at Sochi 2014.

But she says the stakes are highest in alpine skiing, where a guide skis in front of visually impaired athletes and communicates instructions through a Bluetooth headset.

“The trust required between skier and guide is unlike any other.

“Decisions and the communication that comes through those headsets happens within a tenth of a second.

“In the various sports that I’ve competed in, without a doubt ski racing is the hardest because once you add speed and fear to a pursuit, it changes the game because there are real consequences if mistakes are made.”

Momoka Muraoka, Japan

Momoka Muraoka is a skier at heart.

Her first wheelchair sport experiences focused on athletics. But when an athletics friend invited her to the slopes, she was bewitched by the “extraordinary sensation of speed and exhilaration that you really can’t experience in your normal life”.

At 17, she finished 5th in the giant slalom at Sochi 2014.

At PyeongChang 2018, she was selected as Japan’s flagbearer. Few athletes can have justified the honour so fully.

Muruoka’s alpine skiing medal haul comprised two bronze medals, two silver, and a gold in giant slalom sitting.

Then there was the small question of a Paralympic Summer Games in her home country.

“At first, my attitude was one of being slightly envious that the Paralympic Games would be held in Japan. As I had focused all my energies on PyeongChang 2018, I didn't have any strong feelings for Tokyo 2020,” she told Toyota Times.

“However, after PyeongChang 2018 was over, I started to feel that I wanted to try athletics again, something I had done as a child.

“If there was even the slightest possibility I could compete [in Tokyo], then I wanted to give it a try.”

Muruoka, who was diagnosed with transverse myelitis when she was four, needed only two months of training to break the Japanese 100m record.

At Tokyo 2020, she finished sixth in the women's T54 100m.

“I became aware of myself as an athlete after devoting myself to Para athletics for a year,” she said.

“I had been worried, but I enjoyed the 2020 Paralympics because I was able to achieve the dream in athletics that I had when I was little.

“I had no regrets. I felt refreshed.”

Danielle Aravich, United States of America

If competing at both Paralympic Summer and Winter Games were not hard enough, Danielle Aravich competes in two disciplines with contrasting demands.

At Tokyo 2020, she ran the T47 400m. At Beijing 2022, she will be gunning for success in cross-country skiing and biathlon.

“It's two completely different systems. If you think about the Nordic, it's long-distance, anaerobic sustainability. For the sprinting, it's just the fast-twitch. So bringing the two together simultaneously is not necessarily beneficial to one another,” she told the Washington Times.

She had little choice in Tokyo though. Aravich’s impairment – she was born without her left forearm – only qualifies her for sprint track events.

She did not qualify from her heat in Tokyo, and may yet concentrate on the Winter Games.

“I'm not really sure moving forward what my track and field career will be, especially because I've very much invested in Nordic skiing and I see a very long future for myself in this sport. So I'm realistic with my expectations.”