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'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams' (Eleanor Roosevelt).

British Adaptive Ski Team mount challenge for 2010 Paralympics

The British Adaptive Ski Team (BAST) has kicked off its four year training programme for the 2010 Paralympic Games with a successful fortnight’s training in the Hintertux Glacier in Austria earlier this month (November). The training camp was the team’s first of the season and marked BAST’s commitment to bringing home the medals in the 2010 Vancouver games.

The training camp was organised by Disability Snowsports UK.  The DSUK management team decided to use Austrian ski specialists Redpoint Holidays (www.redpoint.co.uk) to make the arrangements for the group due to their experience in running skiing holidays for the disabled in the Hintertux area. The weeks proved productive for the team with excellent and challenging training conditions, even this early in the season.  "Hintertux has been a great place to train,” comments Jane Stevens, one of the BAST team trainers.  “The pistes are challenging and the lift operators couldn't do enough to help us, from transporting all the equipment up the mountain to allocating suitable race lanes.  We also appreciate all the help from Redpoint, who sorted everything out in the resort so we could concentrate on training.”

The BAST team members also felt that the fortnight was a positive start to an intensive period of training. "We were very pleased with the way the weeks went," comments Sean Rose, a monoskier and one of the team’s hopes for 2010, having narrowly missed being in amongst the medals at the last Paralympic Games held in Turin earlier this year. The team now have a couple of weeks respite before moving onto Pitztal, also in Austria, in December. This will mark their first race of the season.

With a grant of £80,000 of UK Sport, the body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery, the team is set to mount a serious challenge in the 2010 alpine skiing events where they can expect to compete against up to 40 countries from across the world.

The Hintertux Glacier is located at the very top of the Ziller Valley and is open all year round for skiing and snowboarding. It has 89km of runs at all levels of challenge. 

For more information on BAST, see www.disabilitysnowsport.org.uk 

For more information on adaptive skiing programmes visit www.redpoint.co.uk

BAST Press Release