We take you behind the scenes this month with our timely Vancouver Games Blog, an insider perspective on sport medicine and science headlines, talking points, statistical data and emerging trends.
A lift line conversation at a ski hill turned into an extra curricular project for some Universatity of Calgary students – their result is the EVO (evolution one) mono Sit-Ski in use at the 2010 Paralympic Wintr Games in Vancouver.
Trent Edwards with Canwest News Service details how it all happened and how this new sit-ski innovation may ultimately get more disabled skiers back on the slopes:
“It’s basically a lot simpler,” Jim Chew (University of Calgary sit-ski innovator) says.
And cheaper. At an expected sale price of about $2,000, the new sit-ski would be two to three times cheaper than most models in the market today. A sit-ski buyer would still need to pick up a regular alpine ski with a binding and two “outriggers” (a pole with a special grip and small ski attached to the bottom that a sit-skier uses to keep their balance while turning), which would cost at least a thousand dollars when bought new. But members of the Calgary chapter of CADS (the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing) expect the far-less-expensive sit-ski will remove the biggest barrier to attracting more disabled people to their sport.
“It makes it much more affordable for an individual who just wants to be a recreational skier with their family, and also for small groups that want to start a sit-ski club,” says Tony Crook, the assistant ski school director for Calgary CADS.
Read the full story here.
