World Para Snow Sports host first Online Nations Meeting

Representatives from 60 nations to take part in four days of meetings starting with Para alpine skiing 18 May 2020

A male sit-skier competing in Para cross-country followed by three competitors

Lillehammer, Norway will host the first edition of the World Para Snow Sports Championships in 2021

ⒸGisle Johnsen/Lillehammer 2021

By World Para Snow Sports

World Para Snow Sports will host during the next two weeks the first Online Nations Meeting with the participation of all 60 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) practising the four Para snow sports.

The 2020 Online Nations Meeting follows up on the successful Sport Forum held in Belgrade, Serbia last year which brought together, for the first time, representatives from Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country and Para snowboard.

The decision to host online sessions follows travel restrictions and lockdown measures imposed by different governments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Online Nations Meeting will kick off with sport specific meetings including presentations of decisions from the Working Groups and Chairpersons of all sports.

There are currently 25 working groups in place (eight in Para alpine skiing, nine in Para Nordic skiing and eight in Para snowboard) made up 110 members from 25 NPCs.

Para alpine skiing will open the Online Nations Meeting on Wednesday (20 May) followed by Para Nordic skiing on Monday (25), Para snowboard on 26 May and the combined World Para Snow Sports on 28 May.

The joint World Para Snow Sports Nations Meeting will be divided in four sessions:

1.   Vision Impaired (VI) Research presentation
2.   IPC Governance review
3.   Presentation from Head of Snow Sports
4.   Presentation from the 2021 Lillehammer World Championships Local Organising Committee and the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee.

The online meetings will not take more than three hours. There will be an opportunity for questions with guidelines on how the questions can be posed.

Working groups

The list of members of each working group, minutes and dates for scheduled meetings can be found on the links below.

Para alpine skiing

Para Nordic skiing

Para snowboard

All nations are invited to send questions to the respective World Para Snow Sports Working Groups from the contacts below.

Para Alpine skiing: info@paraalpineskiing.org
Para Nordic skiing: info@paranordicskiing.org
Para Snowboard: info@parasnowboard.org