PARALYMPIC AND PARA SPORTS NEWS

Shooting

IPC Shooting aims to increase the competitiveness for athletes and attractiveness for spectators by introducing new rule changes for 2013.

Salt Lake City 2002

Poland’s player-coach Sylwester Flis, who was MVP at the Salt Lake 2002 Games, will leave the sport to have surgery.

Wheelchair Rugby

The Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands will all try to qualify for the wheelchair rugby European Championships.

Sochi 2014

With 400 days to go until the Sochi 2014 Games, here’s a brief tour of the Paralympic winter venues.

Goalball

Cairo, Egypt will host the 2013 IBSA Goalball African Regional Championships in October.

Para Ice Hockey

Czech defenseman Pavel Kubes will limit himself on social media this season so he can focus purely on the upcoming ice sledge hockey World Championships.

Shooting

IPC Shooting aims to increase the competitiveness for athletes and attractiveness for spectators by introducing new rule changes for 2013.

Wheelchair Tennis

Double Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion Peter Norfolk, known as the “Quadfather” will no longer compete full-time in the sport.

Wheelchair Tennis

Wheelchair tennis star Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands has now gone 10 years without losing on the international level of her sport.

Cross-Country Skiing

The European Para Snow Sport Youth Circuit is an exciting new development project that aims to grow snow sports for people with an impairment in Europe.

Cross-Country Skiing

The entire five-man American team for the IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships is made up of active duty or veteran servicemen.

2013 IPC Athletics World Championships

• Six Grand Prix events planned for 2013 starting in Dubai• Biennial World Championships in place until 2017• Two countries submit bids to stage 2014 European Championships

Vancouver 2010

Slovakia’s Jakub Krako is dreaming about winning his third slalom World Championship title in La Molina, Spain in February.

Triathlon

The 2013 British Triathlon Championships in Liverpool in July will include a para-triathlon category.

Triathlon

Andre Kajlich and Patricia Walsh, both No. 1 in the ITU world rankings, were named the top American para-triathletes of 2012.

Athletics

Australia’s two-time Paralympic medallist, shot putter Hamish Macdonald, is retiring as an athlete after years of devotion to Paralympic sport.

Rio 2016

The Rio 2016 Organising Committee held a briefing with 15 potential companies who could design their Games mascots.

Alpine Skiing

American Evan Strong was victorious in the IPCAS snowboard cross event on his home snow in South Tahoe (Nevada), USA.

Canada

Canada’s Paralympians were honoured last week for their achievements with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Athletics

Brazil’s Terezinha Guilhermina and Great Britain’s Stef Reid won their British Athletics Series events, as Namibia’s Johanna Benson and Brazil’s Yohansson Nascimento also took part.