Berlin Celebrates Night of Paralympic Stars

Celebration of achievements of Paralympic athletes 13 Nov 2009 By IPC

Yesterday, a total of 600 people from the world of sport, politics, media and culture came together in Berlin, Germany, to celebrate the achievements of Paralympic athletes at 'The Night of the Stars', the most important social event of the German Paralympic Movement.

Held in the German capital, several awards were presented over the evening. The German Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award was given to Alpine Skiier Andrea Rothfuss (Female Category), Cyclist and Paralympian Ambassador Michael Teuber (Male Category) and the National Wheelchair Curling Team (Team Category).

Andrea Rothfuss won four medals at the 2009 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Korea, while Michael Teuber was no less impressive at the UCI Para-Cycling Worldchampionships in Italy, with two gold medals and one silver medal.

The National Wheelchair Curling Team crowned their season with the qualification to the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, winning a bronze medal at the World Championships.

The German Paralympic Media Awards 2009 were also presented in Berlin, with categories in TV/Radio, Print/Photo and Online. Representatives from the newspaper Neue Rheinzeitung and Martin Zimmermann for rbb accepted the awards for their contribution to sports for persons with a disability.

The Online category was won by brandstage.tv, IPC’s co-founding partner of ParalympicSport.TV (PSTV), for their coverage of Paralympic Sport events via the internet TV channel. ParalympicSport.TV, the IPC’s Internet TV channel, is managed by brandstage.tv GmbH, together with the IPC and Narrowstep Ltd. It offers live streaming, scheduled programming and videos on demand in English language to a world wide audience of Paralympic athletes, supporters and fans of Paralympic Sport. ParalympicSport.TV broadcasted major events live such as the Torino 2006 Winter Paralympic Games and the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

IPC COO Georg Schlachtenberger represented the International Paralympic Committee and congratulated all winners.