PyeongChang 2018 Sport Week: Introduction to snowboard

Sport will make its second Games appearance in March 05 Feb 2018
By IPC

With just over a month to go until the Paralympic Winter Games get underway, the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) PyeongChang 2018 Sport Week takes an in- depth look at snowboard.

Snowboard made its Paralympic debut at Sochi 2014 with two medal events and has grown rapidly to expand to 10 events at PyeongChang 2018.

Athletes compete in two disciplines (snowboard-cross and banked slalom) across three categories – SB-LL1 and SB-LL2 for lower-limb impaired riders and SB-UL for upper-limb impaired athletes.

The sport is governed by World Para Snowboard and coordinated by its Sport Technical Committee.

Competition description

Banked slalom

Each athlete competes three runs down the course with their best run determining the final order based on ascending time. There is only one rider on the course at a time. The course may be a medium pitched slope. It may be preferably a naturally varying terrain, with plenty of bumps and dips, and preferably a U-shape/natural valley

Snowboard-cross (head-to-head)

During qualification, each athlete completes three runs down the course with their best run determining the final order based on ascending time. There is only one rider on the course at a time during qualification.

Finals consist of 16 men and eight women, with two competitors per heat or such other numbers as determined by the Jury. The ideal snowboard-cross may allow the construction of any features excluding: gap jumps, corner jumps, spines and double spines, cutting banks, giant slalom turns and negative banks.

Helpful links

About Para snowboard