Viviane Forest of Canada and guide Lindsay Debou compete in the Women's Visually Impaired Super Combined Slalom at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games © • Getty Images

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"Viviane will no doubt be missed on the Para-Alpine Ski Team, yet we know the program is in good hands and is poised to continue its winning tradition at the upcoming 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi next year."

Canadian Paralympic alpine skier Viviane Forest announced her retirement from competition last Friday (29 March).

Forest was the first Canadian woman to win gold medals at both the summer and winter Paralympic Games.

The 33-year-old skier with a visual impairment from Edmonton is a three-time Paralympic gold medallist – once in alpine skiing and twice in goalball – and won five medals in total on the slopes at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games with guide Lindsay Debou.

She is also an active motivational speaker, having spoken to over 5,000 students from more than 120 schools in Quebec, Canada, sharing her life story and the challenges she has overcome as an elite athlete with a visual impairment.

"On behalf of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, a heartfelt thank you to Viviane for her contributions to Paralympic sport and congratulations on her successful career," said David Legg, President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

"Viviane will no doubt be missed on the Para-Alpine Ski Team, yet we know the program is in good hands and is poised to continue its winning tradition at the upcoming 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi next year."

Alexi Salamone was just 22 years old when he won his first Paralympic gold medal with the USA's ice sledge hockey team at the Vancouver 2010 Games. © • Getty Images Germany's Verena Bentele and her guide Thomas Friedrich won the gold medal during the women's 12.5km visually impaired biathlon at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. © • Getty Images Russia's Irek Zaripov won the gold medal during the men's 10km sitting cross country at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. © • Getty Images

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The Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games ticket sales reached an all-time high of 230,000.

Thursday (21 March) marks exactly three years to the day that the last Paralympic Winter Games came to a close in Vancouver.

To honour the third anniversary of the Vancouver 2010 Games, here is a quick glance back:

By the numbers

Countries: 44

Athletes: 502

Medal events: 64

Sports: 5

Spectators: 230,000

Cumulated TV audience: 1.6 billion

Volunteers: 6,100

Top five medal count

1. Germany – 24 (13 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze)

2. Russia – 38 (12 gold, 16 silver, 10 bronze)

3. Canada – 19 (10 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)

4. Slovakia – 11 (6 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)

5. Ukraine – 19 (5 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze)

Top performances

Verena Bentele (Germany, nordic skiing): The visually impaired skier won five gold medals in what would be her final Paralympic Winter Games, including two in biathlon and three in cross-country skiing.

Gerd Schoenfelder (Germany, alpine skiing): The standing skier claimed four golds and a silver on the slopes, moving his overall Paralympic medal total to 22.

Lauren Woolstencroft (Canada, alpine skiing): The host nation’s top alpine skier won five gold medals in the women’s standing competition.

Irek Zaripov (Russia, nordic skiing): The Russian left Vancouver with four golds – two in cross-country skiing and two in biathlon – as well as a silver in cross-country.

Brian McKeever (Canada, nordic skiing): Easily one of Canada’s faces of the Games, McKeever won gold in three different cross-country events in the men’s visually impaired class and is on par to do the same at Sochi 2014.

USA ice sledge hockey team: Behind top play from Steve Cash and Taylor Chace, the Americans claimed Paralympic gold after going undefeated in Vancouver and defeating Japan in the gold-medal game.

Canada wheelchair curling team: The home team finished pool play with a 7-2 record and then went on to beat Korea 8-7 in the gold-medal match.

Mark Arendz (CAN) competes in the Men's 12.5km Standing Biathlon event at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. © • Getty Images

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“My specialty is probably biathlon, but I am enjoying myself more in cross-country in the last year or so, and the results are now starting to come as well.”

At the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, nordic skiers were formally introduced to Paralympic newcomer Mark Arendz, who was representing the host nation.

Three seasons and countless hours of effort later, his fellow competitors have been put on notice heading into the final summer before the Sochi 2014 Games.

Arendz has been a standout in biathlon this season, winning a gold and two bronze medals at the 2013 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships in Solleftea, Sweden, making himself a name to watch during the upcoming year.

At present, Arendz is competing in his sport’s World Cup Finals in Sochi, Russia, and later this week he will return home for Canada’s National Championships, which run from 23-30 March in Whistler.

Northern roots

Born on Canada’s east coast, Arendz grew up with a competitive spirit. Even after a farming accident took his left arm at the age of seven, his motivation to compete only became stronger.

“If anything, that even enhanced my desire to be active, to challenge myself, to be with everybody else,” noted Arendz.

Following success on the able-bodied side of nordic skiing, he crossed over to the Paralympic side of the sport following his accident. After attending a development camp in March 2006, Arendz qualified for his first IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup race the following winter.

Arendz’s success has been amplified by the facilities available to him in Alberta, the province he now calls home.

In 2009, a project called Frozen Thunder was launched at the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park. This track permits Canadian nordic skiers, like Arendz, to train on snow earlier in the season, giving them a distinct advantage. Similar setups exist in Europe, but Frozen Thunder is the only track of its kind in North America.

For Arendz, his results have been strong on the biathlon circuit, but the University of Calgary student is making inroads in the cross-country discipline.

“My specialty is probably biathlon, but I am enjoying myself more in cross-country in the last year or so, and the results are now starting to come as well,” he said.

Room for improvement

Since competing in his first Paralympic Games on home snow, Arendz showed he means business. At the 2010 Paralympics, he finished in 11:23.4 behind gold medallist Nils-Erik Ulset of Norway in the men’s individual 12.5km race.

The 23-year-old’s desire for improvement and diversification has showed in his World Cup results over the past three seasons. Already well accomplished in biathlon, Arendz reached the podium several times throughout the season, sitting second to Ulset with 65 points separating the two.

At the conclusion of the 2011-12 IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup season, Arendz was ranked 20th out of 31 athletes. Even in an expanded field of 37 this year, Arendz has moved up to eighth and is now in the middle of a group that features double Paralympic champion Yoshihiro Nitta of Japan.

Just last month, at the World Championships, Arendz edged Ulset by 11 seconds in the same event.

That finish earned him a bronze medal for his efforts; it was the second time in four-day span he won three World Championship medals in biathlon, including his first gold medal in the 7.5km race. He also won a bronze in the 15km individual race.

This week in Sochi, Arendz has finished in a disappointing fifth place in the biathlon 7.5km and eighth place in the cross-country sprint.

Despite the results, his national championships next week will give him the chance to end his season on a high and head into an important summer ahead on the right foot.

Japan's Mitsuru Nagase was part of team that won a silver medal at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. © • Getty Images

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“I need to train hard and believe in teammates and myself.”

Editor’s note: Every Wednesday in the lead-up to the 2013 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey A and B Pool World Championships this season, Paralympic.org will publish its Sledge Spotlight, allowing the public to meet the faces behind the helmets. Each week, we will feature one ice sledge hockey player, giving fans a chance to get to know them better.

In their two games at this week’s 2013 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships B-Pool, host nation Japan have only given up one goal thus far.

Japan’s goalkeeping duties have been split between Mitsuru Nagase and Shinobu Fukushima, with Nagase having been one of the team’s leaders the last several years.

Nagase was one of the stars for the Japanese team that won a surprise silver at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. In Japan’s shocking 3-1 semi-final win over Canada, Nagase recorded 19 saves, including a block from a rasping Brad Bowden shot with his head.

For Nagase, he’s doing what he’s always wanted to do.

“I read an article about ice sledge hockey in a Japanese magazine on sports for people with disabilities when I was in the hospital, and then I started to play ice sledge hockey a couple months later,” Nagase said.

“I was 19 years old then, which was three years before the Nagano 1998 Paralympics.”

Now, at 37, the veteran player is anchoring their team once again in Nagano, this time at the World Championships B-Pool.

Nagase played the entirety of Japan’s game against Great Britain on Monday (11 March), allowing just one goal and recording 10 saves.

If Japan finishes in the top three in Nagano, they will advance to the Paralympic Qualification Tournament to try to make the field for Sochi 2014.

“I need to train hard and believe in teammates and myself,” Nagase said. “Although we lost in the World Championships (A-Pool) last year, we still have chance to win a medal in Sochi.”

Here’s a closer look at Mitsuru Nagase …

Loves to play against: Canada because they play very aggressively and shoot hard and fast. I like making saves from them.

Most memorable game: Semi-final against Canada at Vancouver 2010 Games. We won the game and a medal for the first time in Japanese sledge hockey history.

Wears jersey number: 39

Pre-game music: Japanese pop music

Keep my medals in/at: My bedroom.

Most admired person: Terry Fox, who tried to run across Canada with an artificial leg to fight cancer.

Matthias Lanzinger © • Marcus Hartmann Vincent Gauthier © • Marcus Hartmann

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“I only have one missing line in my CV: a gold medal.”

Germany’s Gerd Schoenfelder has been the face of the men’s alpine skiing standing class for the last two decades, most recently having won gold in four different disciplines at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

So when he announced his retirement from Paralympic sport in January 2011, it left a large void for another skier to rise to the top of the podium.

The question now is simply: Who?

Let’s take a look at the top athletes who could potentially fill Schoenfelder’s shoes.

Matthias Lanzinger

According to Schoenfelder, Austria’s Matthias Lanzinger will be the favourite in the men’s standing class come Sochi 2014.

Five years after losing his leg in a ski accident, the former able-bodied athlete won a medal of every colour last month at the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in La Molina, Spain, helping Austria finish second in the medals table.

“Now, it’s far away, but my whole comeback is concentrating on Sochi for the Paralympics, so I hope I’m in good form next season and I can win medals next year,” Lanzinger said.

He’s back in Sochi this week for the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup finals, hoping to either repeat or better his performances from La Molina, especially in the super-G and downhill events.

“I want to fight for an overall World Cup medal to test myself for in Sochi for next year for the Paralympics,” Lanzinger said.

Vincent Gauthier-Manuel

France’s Vincent Gauthier-Manuel is also becoming a quick favourite, and his gold-medal performances in the slalom and giant slalom events in La Molina certainly helped him in getting his name out there as one of the best.

At the Vancouver 2010 Games, Gauthier-Manuel won two silvers and a bronze, but failed to reach the top of the podium due to Schoenfelder’s first-class performances.

“I only have one missing line in my CV: a gold medal,” Gauthier-Manuel said. “Thus I will go to Sochi for the gold medal, I don’t know in which discipline yet, but I will decide after the World Championships. But for me to win the Paralympic Games gold medal is my main goal.”

Markus Salcher

Austrian Markus Salcher took some people by surprise at the recent World Championships, winning golds in both the men’s downhill and super-G standing events.

The 22-year-old failed to medal at the Vancouver 2010 Games, but Sochi 2014 could be an entirely different story for him if he keeps improving.

Michael Bruegger

Sochi 2014 will be the fifth Paralympic Winter Games for veteran Michael Bruegger of Switzerland. The question is, will he be able to keep up on the slopes with the young, up-and-coming skiers?

He has yet to win a Paralympic gold, with his only medals at the Games – two silvers – coming at Nagano 1998 and Vancouver 2010.

Mitch Gourley

Although Australia’s Mitch Gourley failed to medal at the World Championships this year, he is expected to be the top skier at Sochi 2014 from the southern hemisphere.

He has improved tremendously in the last couple years, and Gauthier-Manuel only had words of praise for him.

He has exactly the same impairment than me and we imitate each other,” Gauthier-Manuel said.

“But he is younger than me so he was inspired by me in the beginning, and now he is passing me, He had the advantage to have me as a model two years ago, and he has continued to grow, and the student seems to have surpassed his teacher.”

Alexey Bugaev

Host nation Russia’s best chances in the men’s alpine standing skiing competition will rest on the shoulders of 15-year-old Alexey Bugaev, who recently won two silvers medals at the World Championships in La Molina.