Slalom to cap-off alpine skiing World Championships

If she manages the feat, Bochet will be the first woman in history to bag back-to-back golds in all events at successive IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships.

The 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Panorama, Canada, will conclude on Tuesday (10 March), with France’s Marie Bochet and Russia’s Alexey Bugaev going for their fifth world titles of the week in slalom.

Bochet, who has now won an incredible ten individual titles in a row in the women’s standing stretching back to her first gold in Sestriere, Italy, in 2011 and through 2013, will be hoping to beat German Paralympic champion Andrea Rothfuss and complete the sweep that she missed out on at Sochi 2014.

If she manages the feat, Bochet will be the first woman in history to bag back-to-back golds in all events at successive IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships.

Slovakia’s Petra Smarzova, a bronze medallist from the last Paralympic Games, will be hoping to firmly grab her last medal opportunity. The Netherlands’ Anna Jochemsen, who picked up bronze in the super-combined on Saturday (7 March) with the second fastest slalom time, is also a contender.

The men’s standing will see Bugaev also going for the full house of golds, as he heads into the slalom as the Paralympic champion. His main rivals include Switzerland’s Thomas Pfyl and New Zealander Adam Hall, the silver and bronze medallists from 2013.

Closing the book on the latest chapter in their rivalry will be German Paralympic champion Anna Schaffelhuber and Austrian Claudia Loesch in the women’s sitting.

Schaffelhuber and Loesch have two gold medals apiece heading into the final race, with Schaffelhuber taking the latest victory in the giant slalom on Sunday (8 March).

Germany’s Anna-Lena Forster has enjoyed podium success at IPC Alpine Skiing World Cups in 2014-15, and will be hoping to improve on her silver medal performance from Sochi. Canada’s Kimberly Joines also has the chance to give the home crowds a medal on the final day, having completed the podium behind Forster just one year ago.

The men’s sitting could see Japan winning their first gold medal, if Paralympic champion Takeshi Suzuki manages to put together a good enough run. However it was his teammate Taiki Morii, the 2013 silver medallist, that went fastest during the slalom section of the super-combined earlier in the competition.

New Zealand’s Corey Peters is not to be forgotten having medalled in three events at Panorama 2015, alongside German Georg Kreiter, the new super-combined and giant slalom world champion.

Australia’s Melissa Perrine with guide Andrew Bor is another skier from Oceania who is going for five podiums in the women’s visually impaired. Russian Paralympic champion Aleksandra Frantceva, guided by Semen Pliaskin, is the hot favourite having won her first gold medal of the Championships in the giant slalom.

The men’s equivalent will feature the Russian duo of Paralympic champion Valerii Redkozubov, guided by Evgeny Geroev, and reigning world champion Ivan Frantcev with guide German Agranovskii. Each skier has one world title each from the competition so far.

Panorama 2015, featuring over 100 athletes from 23 countries, will be streamed live at www.Panorama2015.com alongside live results. Viewers in the US can watch via US Paralympics website and in Canada at CBC.ca/Sports.

Official results will be posted at IPC Alpine Skiing’s calendar and results page.

Images from each day will be available at the IPC's Flickr page. Media wishing to receive high resolution images should contact Lucy.Dominy@paralympic.org.

Athlete interviews for broadcasters are also available. Contact jose.dominguez@paralympic.org for more details.

Images from each day will be available at the IPC's Flickr page. Media wishing to receive high resolution images should contact Lucy.Dominy@paralympic.org.

Live updates and behind the scenes will be available at IPC Alpine Skiing's Facebook page, Twitter account and @Paralympics Instagram.