Winter Paralympics 2022: Top athletes to watch
We highlight several extraordinary Paralympians who are set to feature prominently at Beijing 2022.
Paralympic Games
The Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games will take place from 4-13 March 2022.
Around 700 of the world's best Paralympic athletes will head to Beijing as the city becomes the first to host both the summer and winter editions of the Paralympic Games.
The athletes will be competing in 78 different events across six sports in two disciplines: snow sports (alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, and snowboarding) and ice sports (Para ice hockey and wheelchair curling).
Before the competition begins, we highlight several athletes to look out for.
Billy Bridges, para ice hockey
One of the most decorated Paralympians of all time, Bridges has won a medal of each colour throughout his impressive career.
Bridges was born with a condition which limits his mobility, but his slap shots can reach up to 130 km/h.
"I think I was skateboarding at the time and they wanted to introduce me to some disabled sports. I remember the first time sitting in a sledge I just fell in love with it because I wanted to play hockey from such a young age." [via International Paralympic Committee (IPC)]
Lisa Bunschoten, snowboarding
The Dutch snowboarder won a silver (snowboard cross) and bronze medal (banked slalom) at PyeongChang 2018.
Bunschoten founded a company with her team-mate Renske van Beek called Adaptive Board Chicks, where they host camps to encourage female athletes to get into Para snowboarding in the Netherlands.
Dan Cnossen, cross-country skiing, biathlon
Holder of six medals - one gold, four silvers and one bronze - Cnossen became the first American man to win a Winter Paralympic gold in nordic skiing at PyeongChang 2018.
While stationed in Afghanistan as a US Navy Seal in 2009, Cnossen stepped on an improvised explosive device and had to have both legs amputated.
"I immediately fell in love with the peacefulness and its connection with nature." - Cnossen on why he chose skiing [via IPC]
Brittani Coury, snowboarding
Coury is truly a hero and inspiration.
After needing nine operations on her right ankle following a snowboarding accident in 2003, she decided to have her leg amputated.
Inspired by the medical staff that helped her, she decided to become a registered nurse and, during the onset of the pandemic, the 2018 silver medallist in banked slalom stopped everything she was doing and volunteered at the COVID-19 ward of her hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"Snowboarding for me was an outlet. I was a troubled youth and I didn't feel like I belonged and I had a lot of inadequacies, but when I put a snowboard on my feet I felt like I belonged." [via IPC]
Cui Yutao, Para ice hockey
Cui is expected to be a key figure in the China's push for the podium in their Paralympic ice hockey debut.
The team captain began his career as a Para cyclist but made the switch over to hockey in 2016.
The Qingdao native was in a car accident when he was 18 years old, which necessitated his left leg being amputated below the knee.
"I am a prudent person, but as soon as I get on to the rink, I will fully devote myself in fighting for the team’s glory. I think that’s why I was selected as the captain by the coach." [via IPC]
Declan Farmer, Para ice hockey
Farmer was born a bilateral amputee and started playing sled hockey at the age of nine.
The two-time gold medallist has a habit of rising to the occasion for Team USA. The two-time gold medallist scored the game-tying goal with 37 seconds left in regulation followed by the game-winner in overtime against rivals Canada to give the USA its third consecutive Paralympic gold at PyeongChang 2018.
All the signs are he's going to be an important player for the team in Beijing; he was named USA's player of the game in the 2021 World Championship final against, you guessed it, Canada.
"I've built close relationships with everyone on the team, having been here for so long. Just having those relationships is leadership in itself because you know guys well, they believe in you and you believe in them. Establishing that trust between teammates is big." [via Team USA]
Ina Forrest, wheelchair curling
Forrest has a clear mission at Beijing 2022: win back gold. After two consecutive Olympic titles, she had to settle for bronze at PyeongChang 2018.
She recalls, "I will always remember when I received my first Team Canada jacket and the pride I felt to be representing Canada. Wearing the maple leaf and hearing the Canadian national anthem in competition is so much more emotionally charged than I ever anticipated.
"It is a swelling in your chest that threatens to bring on tears." - Ina Forrest's pride at representing Canada [via Canadian Paralympic Committee]
Jung Seung-hwan, Para ice hockey
Jung has one of the best nicknames at the Games: 'Messi on Ice'.
He's earned it due to his ferocious speed on the ice, and for helping make history at PyeongChang 2018 when he led hosts Republic of Korea to bronze, their first medal in the event's history.
Mac Marcoux, alpine skiing
Winner of Canada's first medal of PyeongChang 2018, Marcoux is ready to make more history in Beijing.
The 24-year-old already has five medals to his name in giant slalom, downhill and Super-G in the visually impaired categories.
"I thought, what the hell, let's give it a go. I started racing and never looked back." [via IPC]
Oksana Masters, cross-country skiing, biathlon
A winter and summer Paralympic athlete - she won two gold medals in cycling at Tokyo 2020 - Masters is one of the most decorated competitors around.
With 10 medals already to her name, you can expect to see her competing for more in Beijing.
Born in Ukraine, her birth mother's exposure to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster led to several limb impairments. She was abandoned at an orphanage after her birth, and adopted at the age of seven by Gay Masters when she was brought over to the US.
"Cross-country skiing was an accident. I love winter, I love snow, I lived in Buffalo, I am from Ukraine where it gets cold in winter, so it is in my blood." [via IPC]
Brian McKeever, para nordic skiing
Beijing 2022 will be the 'Last Dance' for Team Canada's all-time most successful Paralympian.
McKeever has won an astonishing 17 medals, 13 of them gold, since making his debut at Salt Lake City 2002.
The 42-year-old, who carried the Canadian flag at the 2018 Opening Ceremony, announced in October 2020 that this would be his sixth and final Paralympic Games appearance.
His view on medals is, "They represent four years of kicking your own butt to be better. It's always like, 'Today was good, tomorrow needs to be better'.
"You wake up and think, 'Let's be better today than I was yesterday', and you do that again and again and again." [via theguardian.pe.ca]
Melissa Perrine, alpine skiing
The PyeongChang 2018 dual bronze medallist is one of the most experienced of the 10 Paralympians Team Australia is sending to Beijing.
In acknowledgement of her reputation as someone who leads by example, she was appointed as a co-captain for Australia along with Para snowboarder Ben Tudhope.
Michal Vapenka, Para ice hockey
The Czech goaltending legend could be playing in his final Paralympics in Beijing.
Vapenka has been incredibly consistent over the years, and has represented Czech Republic at each edition of the Winter Paralympics since Vancouver 2010.
"I started trying sports where I could prove what a person can or cannot do with an impairment." [via IPC]
Thomas Walsh, alpine skiing
Walsh is a long-time friend of skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin with the pair growing up together in Vail, Colorado. In fact, Walsh's first alpine skiing race coach was none other than Shiffrin's mother, Eileen.
After travelling to watch Shiffrin compete at Sochi 2014, he began charting his path to the Paralympic Games.
READ MORE: Thomas Walsh, Mikaela Shiffrin, and a true friendship
"The snow is in my blood. Skiing a perfect run down a course or even the perfect line down a powder fluffed trail gives my life purpose." [via IPC]