PyeongChang 2018 prepares to stage Paralympic test events

The host city of the next Paralympic Winter Games will stage test events in all six Paralympic winter sports in March and April. 10 Nov 2016

Athletes compete at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre in the Alpensia Sports Park on February 11, 2015 in the mountain cluster of Pyeongchang, South Korea.

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With less than 500 days to go until the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, the Organising Committee (POCOG) will start a series of test events this month through to next April which will include six Paralympic winter sports.

The first Paralympic winter sport test event will be the World Wheelchair Curling Championships that will be staged between 4-11 March. Featuring 10 teams, the event will take place in the 3,500 seat capacity Gangneung Curling Centre. Russia start as defending world champions.*

From 10 March, the IPC Snowboard World Cup Finals and IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Cup will also take place in PyeongChang.

At Sochi 2014 Para snowboard made its Paralympic debut and between 10-13 March, the climax of the season will involve boarders competing in banked slalom and snowboard cross events.

Between 10-15 March, the 7,500 capacity Alpensia Biathlon Centre, which was originally built in 1998 but has had a facelift ahead of the 2018 Games, will welcome the world’s best Para biathlon and Para cross-country skiers.

March will also see PyeongChang host the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals, an event which see skiers compete in downhill, super-G, super combined, giant slalom and slalom.

The final Paralympic test event will be IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool which will take place between 15-23 April. The USA, the defending world and Paralympic champions, will be one of eight teams taking to the ice at the newly constructed 10,000 seat capacity Gangneung Hockey Centre.

The PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games will take place between 9-18 March.

*Editor’s note: The International Paralympic Committee suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee on 7 August for its inability to fulfil its IPC membership responsibilities and obligations, in particular its obligation to comply with the IPC Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code (to which it is also a signatory). As a result of the suspension, Russian athletes cannot enter IPC sanctioned events or competitions, including the Paralympic Games. For further information please click here.