Winter Paralympics 2022 top sport facts

The Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games are right around the corner and will run from 4 to 13 March 2022.

The Chinese capital is ready to host around 600 of the world's best Paralympic athletes to compete in 78 different events across six sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, snowboarding, para ice hockey, and wheelchair curling.

As excitement builds around the Games, we bring you 20 key facts about the sports.

Para snowboard is the youngest Paralympic winter sport, added for the Sochi 2014 Games.

In wheelchair curling, athletes do not sweep the ice to manoeuvre the stone to its final position like in Olympic curling. This means the throw must be very precise.

In para ice hockey, instead of skates, players use double-blade sledges to manoeuvre around the ice that also allow the puck to pass beneath.

In para biathlon, the target size has a diameter of 21mm for vision impaired athletes and 13mm for athletes with a physical disability.

Para Nordic skiing includes cross-country skiing and biathlon as two disciplines.

Para snowboarders compete in two different events at the Paralympics – snowboard-cross, which is a head-to-head race, and banked slalom, a race around flags.

In biathlon, athletes with vision impairments are assisted by acoustic signals when shooting, which depending on signal intensity, indicate when the athlete is on target.

Para ice hockey is a mixed sport. At PyeongChang 2018, Lena Schrøder from Norway became the second female player at the Games after compatriot Britt Mjaasund Øyen in 1994.

In para Nordic skiing, athletes are divided into three categories depending on their type of impairment: sitting, standing and vision impaired.

Para alpine skiing features six disciplines: downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G and super combined.

Wheelchair curlers deliver the stone using a stick that hooks onto the handle of the stone.

Biathletes and cross-country skiers compete in individual events over short, middle, and long distances.

In para alpine skiing and para Nordic skiing, athletes with vision impairments make use of a guide to navigate the courses. They have Bluetooth headsets to speak to each other, or they can use speakers strapped to the guide’s back.

In para ice hockey, players use short sticks which have a spike-end for pushing and a blade-end for shooting.

Para snowboarders compete in three categories based on their functional ability – SB-LL1 and SB-LL2 for lower-limb impaired riders and SB-UL for upper-limb impaired athletes.

Wheelchair curlers do not ‘slide out of the hack’. Instead, athletes push the stone from a stationary position near the ‘hog line’, or the line by which the stone must be clearly and fully released by the thrower.

In para alpine skiing, athletes use sit-skis, outriggers (poles with a foot) and/or double skis.

In para Nordic skiing, seated athletes use sit-skis consisting of a seat on a frame mounted with bindings onto two cross-country skis. Paralympic-quality sit-skis are made of ultra-lightweight materials, and are custom fitted to each athlete.

Wheelchair curling is the biggest team sport at the Winter Paralympic Games, featuring 12 countries.

In para alpine skiing, the distance between guide and athlete in slalom must be less three gates and less than two gates for giant slalom, super-G and downhill.