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Raising the bar

Disabled skiers breaking down social and personal barriers

"The only time we are truly victims is when we decide to give up the freedom to be able to chose and move forward and reach our full potential."

— Rick Hansen in Whistler, April 2001.

As any beginner knows, learning to ski or snowboard isn't an easy task. For starters, skis have minds of their own and a tendency to cross one another, resulting in a frantic bout of useless pole waving and the use of that infamous ski phrase: "yard sale."

For beginner snowboarders, the descriptions "balance and control" are not part of their vocabulary, as the word "tail-bone" takes centre stage. Yet people are still out there learning the ropes, whether for fun or competitive purposes.

But the road for disabled skiers begins long before they reach the snow. Often the first hurdles are gaining mobility or learning to use a crosswalk, steps taken well in advance of any dreams of skiing or competitive racing. Yet despite the challenges, skiers with disabilities are out there, doing the big shoots and speed runs – whether in a sit ski, using one leg or an artificial limb, or by receiving "sight" directions through a walkie-talkie inside their helmet.

A local program that is helping open up the slopes to people with disabilities is the Whistler Adaptive Ski Program. The largely volunteer-run organization grew out of the Disabled Skiers Association of British Columbia, which was formed in 1974. The program was first launched locally under the name of the Whistler Disabled Ski Club in 1985. The name was changed to Alpine Access Ability in 1997. This year has seen yet another change to its current name, in a bid to move towards a more "enabling" image, and away from the stigma associated with disabilities.

Sian Blythe, the program director, says the range of disabled people using the service is extensive and growing.

"We have blind skiers, amputees, paraplegics and quadriplegics who use the program, as well as children with attention-deficit or hyperactivity disorders, Down’s Syndrome and autistic people."

As a trained nurse, Blythe says she became involved in disabled skiing through a spinal injury recovery program, called Back Up, in the United Kingdom. She says she was so inspired by the huge difference skiing could bring to people’s lives that she carried on the work after moving to Canada.

One such success story of disabled skiing is Steve Napier, one of the program’s 80 volunteers this season and a member of the British Disabled Ski Team. Formerly a recreational skier, Napier became a paraplegic after a motorcycle accident in the U.K. He says it took his friends a year to persuade him to take up his old sport again because he didn’t want to start over. But he says it was the best thing he could have done.

"With sit skiing it's a different buzz," he explains. "It’s like go-carting because you're so low to the ground and the adrenaline rush comes a lot more quicker." Having able-bodied people stop and watch you go by is another bonus, he adds.

"When they see you at the bottom of the mountain in a wheelchair there's that stigma that goes with a wheelchair – you know, the poor bloke, poor girl or whatever the case may be. But when you get on the mountain and can kick-ass and can beat a lot of the able bodied skiers, ski faster or better or do more than they can do, that's a buzz!"

Napier says he loves sharing the freedom that comes from skiing and notices a marked improvement in peoples’ self-esteem from completing even a single run.

When it comes to training disabled ski racers, British Columbia can take a bow. Whistler’s Phil Chew has been the head coach of the B.C. Disabled Ski Team since 1994 and he says more than a third of the current national disabled team is from this province, including Mark Ludbrook, Daniel Westley, Scott Patterson and 16 year-old Matthew Hallet, who recently moved up to the Canadian B team. Chew says the quality of training available today is a far cry from when he first began competitive ski racing some 20 years ago, after losing his right leg to bone cancer.

"There was no real disabled ski racing environment in the early 1980s so myself and two other amputees formed our own team, called the Hang Five Amputee Racing Team – the five standing for five toes," he explains.

Eventually the trio did return to the provincial team and then made it onto the national team, where Chew says they encountered their first professional trainers.

"We were very lucky to get Gary Aiken and Butch Boutry as our coaches," he says. "Butch was a coach for the Crazy Canucks and a real inspiration – a man of few words but when he said something, you knew what to do."

Under the guidance of good coaches, Chew went on to participate in five Olympics, competing in three Paralympics and exhibiting at the Sarajevo and Calgary Games.

Upon his retirement from racing in 1992, Chew worked alongside his mentor Dave Murray in Whistler to build up a B.C. racing team as an entity to be reckoned with. However, here lies the paradox. Chew says training opportunities for young disabled skiers have never been better, but recruitment has gotten tougher because of declining numbers of athletes taking up the sport.

"We just have to get the word out so a lot more people take advantage of these programs, both ski racing programs and just disabled skiing in general," he says.

One of Chew’s protégés, Matthew Hallet, says he has noticed a marked decline in the number of people participating in the national disabled championship races. Hallet is an above-the-knee amputee who races on a single ski using outriggers for balance and control.

"When I first started racing a few years ago there might be 80 people entered in the competition, but now there’s more likely to be 50," he says. "More people need to get out and try skiing."

Hallet says he probably wouldn’t have been a skier if he hadn’t lost his leg to bone cancer at the age of five, because his family’s sport is hockey. But he says he’s now aiming for medals at the World Cup level, and ultimately at the Paralympics. Last month he took the silver in slalom and the bronze in the downhill at the 2001 Canadian Disabled National Championships in Banff.

Chew believes there are a number of factors behind the downturn in competitive skier numbers. He says cancer treatments have changed so doctors don’t tend to amputate anymore, thus reducing one source of entrants. He says the whole ski industry is also competing against a host of new sports and leisure time activities.

"When disabled skiing started up 25 years ago there wasn't much else available," he says. "But things have evolved and the world opened up, so people have more choice and things are so much more accessible."

Chew believes better marketing is needed especially to reach the large number of people in wheelchairs who haven’t yet tried skiing.

One of Canada’s most famous wheelchair athletes, Rick Hansen, agrees. He says not enough people are aware of options like the Whistler Adaptive Ski Program and the advances in technology that allow people more active lifestyles.

"Sixteen per cent of the adult population has one or more definable disabilities and this number is going to grow," Hansen says. "Wealthy folks who are baby boomers are getting older and are starting to have physical disabilities, but want to continue their quality of life. They also need to hear about these programs."

Sian Blythe says the number of skier days registered by the Whistler Adaptive Ski Program actually jumped from 40 in the 1995/96 season to 340 in the winter of 1999/2000. However, she agrees that the current clientele is just the tip of the iceberg. She says strong marketing is the answer.

"A lot of people might see those fast sit skiers going down the mountain and think, ‘That's so extreme, I’ll never be able to do something like that.’ But we offer so much more." She says last season 102 people were turned away locally because of the high demand for volunteers. An additional boost of 30 volunteers this season should translate into a balanced supply and demand, she says, but the program was unlikely to reach its target of 500 skier days for 2000/2001.

"We are meeting the demand but not servicing all the people who need us," she says. "We have one full-time paid staff member but realistically need two or three to translate the many enquiries we get into actual bookings."

Blythe says the long-term goal is for Whistler is to have a program that rivals Winter Park in Colorado, the leading resort for disabled skiers in North America.

In the meantime, word is getting out slowly about the opportunities that exist for disabled athletes in Whistler and amazing things are being achieved daily. In the words of Phil Chew:

"When I lost my leg I thought I was in for a hard go, but when I got involved in skiing it was like I was reincarnated. Disabled skiers just keep raising the bar and they totally surprise me. There are lot of different problems for these young kids with disabilities, but hopefully by being involved with something like a ski team, it can bring their self esteem up and make them proud of being part of something as great as disabled skiing."



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