Para Alpine skiing

At the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, athletes will participate in five different events and three categories according to their type of disability: standing, sitting (on a sitski or monoski) or vision impaired (vision impaired and blind, who race following a guide connected via radio).

The men's and women's races will be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.

Skiing as a sport for people with disabilities evolved from the efforts of disabled veterans during and after the Second World War.

An amputee in Germany attached crutches to short skis, inventing the first equipment for skiers with lower limb amputations. Several years later, an Austrian veteran who had lost both legs in combat founded a division of the Austrian Ski Association for disabled skiers, and annual competitions began to be held in Austria. Ludwig Guttmann, an important figure in developing Paralympic sports, helped organise skiing events.

For years, skiing for people with disabilities was limited to amputees. But in 1969 a visually impaired skier named Jean Eymere, a former ski instructor who had lost his sight, started a ski programme in Aspen, Colorado, for blind skiers. In 1974 the first international competition, the World Para Alpine Skiing Championships, was held in France.

The first Winter Paralympic Games were held in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 1976, with two alpine events: slalom and giant slalom.

Downhill skiing was added to the Paralympic program in 1984 in Innsbruck, Austria, and the super-G was added in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway.

Sit-skiing was introduced as a demonstration sport at the Innsbruck 1984 Paralympic Winter Games and became a medal event at the 1998 Games in Nagano.

The main equipment includes monoskis, outriggers and audio transmission systems. Monoskis—shells attached with a shock absorber to a ski and used in combination with two outriggers equipped with mini-skis—are employed by sit skiers to help them balance. Vision impaired athletes, on the other hand, do not use monoskis or outriggers; instead, they rely on Bluetooth headsets that connect them with their guides. In relation to the disability, a timing correction system allows athletes with different impairments to compete against each other.