Para-snowboarders face-off in major competition

World Today

Para-snowboarders face-off in major competition

They call themselves “adaptive athletes”, people with disabilities who’ve made adjustments to excel at sports. Adaptive sports are now a regular part of athletic competitions.

CCTV America’s Hendrik Sybrandy reports.

At Breckenridge, Colorado Ski Resort, snowboarders plunge downhill. 20 competitors take turns trying to conquer the twists and turns of a bank slalom course, with the fastest time winning.

This is the Dew Tour, an annual winter sports event which for the first time this year welcomed para-snowboarders, so-called adaptive athletes with permanent physical disabilities.

Extreme sports events typically center around freestyle skiing and snowboarding in the wintertime, but more and more, adaptive athletes have become part of the lineup, too.

Daniel Gale, co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, an organization that helps people with disabilities get involved in activities like snowboarding.

Amy Purdy lost her legs to bacterial meningitis, then won a bronze medal in snowboarding at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.