Paralympics 2018: Paralympic Winter Games Schedule:
Two weeks after the Olympic Games, Pyeongchang hosts the twelfth Paralympic Winter Games, from March 9 to 18, with 45 participating nations. Russia will not be there, but North Korea, which is opening its participation in this event.
About 670 athletes will fight to try to get the 80 gold medals in play, divided into six disciplines; Alpine skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, biathlon, ice hockey and curling.
Russia is also banned from its presence in Pyeongchang, just as in the Olympic Games, but 30 of its Paralympic athletes were allowed to participate under the Olympic flag by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). In 2014, at home, the Russians were the absolute winners with 30 gold medals.
And just like in the recent Olympic Games, the Paralympics represent an opportunity for rapprochement between North Korea and South Korea. Two North Korean athletes participate for the first time in history in a Paralympic Games (in cross-country skiing events). In principle, the two Korean delegations will parade together on Friday at the opening ceremony.
Spain will send four athletes to the South Korean city, with the rider Astrid Fina as standard bearer.
The program:
Friday, March 9: opening ceremony
Saturday March 10: alpine skiing (male and female descent), biathlon (7.5 km male and 6 km female)
Sunday 11 March: alpine skiing (Super-G male and female), cross-country skiing (15 km men and 12 km women)
Monday 12 March: Snowboarding (male and female cross), cross-country skiing (20 km freestyle men and 15 km women freestyle)
Tuesday March 13: alpine skiing (male and female Super Combined), biathlon (12.5 km men and 10 km women)
Wednesday 14 March: alpine skiing (male slalom), cross-country skiing (classic sprint for men and women)
Thursday 15 March: alpine skiing (female Slalom)
Friday 16 March: Snowboarding (male and female Slalom), biathlon (15 km men and 12.5 km women)
Saturday 17 March: Alpine skiing (Male Giant Slalom), cross-country skiing (10 km men, 7.5 km women, 7.5 km men and 5 km women), Curling (match by bronze and final), ice hockey (match for bronze.
The two Koreas held a working meeting today in which they agreed on details of North Korea’s participation in the Paralympic Winter Games that will be held in the South Korean county of PyeongChang from next March 9.
Both parties agreed that the delegation sent by Pyongyang to the Games arrive by road to the neighboring country on the 7th and through one of the border posts in the militarized demarcation that separates North and South, according to the Ministry of Unification in a statement. .
The North Korean delegation will be composed of 150 people and will include athletes, musicians and cheerleaders, as agreed and both parties in previous meetings.
The North aims to participate for the first time in a Paralympic Games with two Paralympic cross-country athletes, and for this it has received an invitation from the International Paralympic Committee (ICC), according to the South Korean Ministry.
Today’s meeting was held in the Tongilgak (Unification Pavilion), on the northern fringe of the Joint Security Zone (JSA), which is part of the border between the two countries.
The North Korean delegation was led by Hwang Chung-song, a senior official of the body in charge of managing relations with the South, while the southern delegation – also made up of three members – headed Lee Joo-tae, director-general of exchanges. inter-Koreans in the Unification Ministry of Seoul.
“We are going to make an effort so that these conversations maintain the atmosphere of improvement of inter-Korean relations,” Lee said before addressing the meeting in statements made by the agency Yonhap.
The meeting comes after the North Korean participation in the recently concluded PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games has brought the closest approach in years between both neighbors, technically still at war.
Seoul is convinced that this meltdown can help Washington and Pyongyang sit down for the first time in more than a decade and, in fact, a representation of the regime has ensured during his visit to the South to attend the closing of the Games that there is a will to dialogue with the United States.
Medal tests in six sports disciplines: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, sled hockey, snowboarding, curling in a wheelchair. They will be the biggest Winter Paralympic Games in history.
