Hosts wanted for snow sport Worlds

“The 2019 and 2021 editions of these Championships will be incredibly important for the growth of all the sports particularly in Asia, as we have two consecutive Paralympic Winter Games taking place in the region.”

IPC Alpine Skiing and Snowboard and IPC Cross-Country Skiing and Biathlon have launched the bidding process for their 2019 and 2021 World Championships.

The International Federations are looking for hosts for Championships that will take place in the season after the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, and crucially ahead of the recently announced Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Bids are welcomed from organisers for alpine skiing, snowboard and one for both cross-country skiing and biathlon. The sports are also open to proposals for joint Championships. The deadline for bids is 18 December 2015.

Dimitrije Lazarovski, Head of IPC Snow Sports, said: “The 2019 and 2021 editions of these Championships will be incredibly important for the growth of all the sports particularly in Asia, as we have two consecutive Paralympic Winter Games taking place in the region.

“We are focusing a lot of our efforts on developing para-snow sports there and we expect to have more athletes than ever before from those countries.

“We have also increased the scale and quality of each of the World Championships every time, with very successful Worlds in 2015 that increased broadcasting and media interest and raised organisational standards across the board. This is great for the sports, the host countries and resorts.

“We are looking for organisers that want to put their own unique mark on the Championships and help us once again take the sports to the next level.”

IPC Alpine skiing expects 140 athletes from 30 countries, with snowboard attracting 120 from 30.

IPC Cross-Country and Biathlon is estimated to feature 150 skiers from 20 countries.

The last edition of the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships was held in Panorama, Canada, in 2015, alongside the IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships which were also staged in North America, in Cable, Wisconsin, USA.

The 2015 IPC Snowboard World Championships took place in La Molina, Spain, which were the first to be organised by the Federation, and followed the highly successful debut of the sport at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

The 2015 snowboard and alpine skiing World Championships had a combined reach of nearly 10 million people on social media, whilst the Nordic skiing Worlds reached around three million.

For more information on hosting the alpine skiing and snowboard World Championships, organisers should contact ipcalpineskiing@paralympic.org.

For details about the cross-country and biathlon Worlds, those interested can contact ipcnordicskiing@paralympic.org.