About LILLEHAMMER 2021
The competition
The World Para Snow Sports Championships will take place in Lillehammer, Norway, from 8-23 January 2022.
It will mark the first time that the Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country and Para snowboard World Championships are held in one host country.
Lillehammer 2021 is the biggest Para sport to take place in Norway since the Paralympic Winter Games hosted by Lillehammer in 1994.
Around 750 participants are expected in total, including 200 Para Nordic skiers, 120 Para alpine skiers and 60 Para snowboarders.
Previously, the World Para Snow Sports hosted separate World Championships. In 2019, Prince George, Canada organised the Para Nordic Skiing World Championships, while the Para Snowboard Worlds was organised in Pyha, Finland.
Kranjska Gora, Slovenia and Sella Nevea, Italy jointly hosted the latest edition of the Para Alpine Skiing World Championships in 2019.
The venues
Para biathlon and Para cross-country events will take place at Birkebeineren Ski Stadium. The venue was built for the 1994 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
It has since hosted the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, the IBU Biathlon World Cup and FIS Cross-Country and Nordic Combined World Cups.
Para alpine skiing and Para snowboard competitions will be held in Hafjell, located 15km away from Lillehammer. The ski resort hosted the alpine skiing events at the Lillehammer 1994 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics.
The two snowboard courses will be built by the same team that worked on the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in South Korea.
The Norwegian Ski Association acts as the Local Organising Committee (LOC), and works closely with the Norwegian Biathlon Association, the Norwegian Board Association and the VI Foundation.