Great Britain at the 1992 Winter Paralympics

{{Further|1992 Winter Paralympics medal table}}

The following British athletes won medals at the Games. In total five medals were won, all in alpine skiing, and the team finished fifteenth in the medal table. This was the best medal total by Great Britain at a Winter Paralympics since 1984 in Innsbruck.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/disability_sport/4428162.stm |title=Turin welcomes Winter Paralympics |work=BBC Sport|date=10 March 2006 |access-date=4 March 2010}} In the 'by discipline' sections below, medallists' names are in bold.

The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom; athletes from Northern Ireland, who could later elect to hold Irish citizenship under the pre-1999 article 2 of the Irish constitution, were only eligible to represent Great Britain at this time.{{cite web|title=Full text of the constitution |publisher=Department of the Taoiseach |url=http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland.pdf |access-date=4 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20050415121010/http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland.pdf |archive-date=15 April 2005 }} However no Northern Irish athletes took part in the Winter Paralympics until 2010 in Vancouver.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/alpine_skiing/8487407.stm |title=NI skier Kelly Gallagher named in GB Paralympic team |work=BBC Sport|date=3 February 2010 |access-date=4 March 2010}}

These were the first Games, along with the Summer Games in Barcelona, to be coordinated by the British Paralympic Association. Funding for elite training programmes came from the Paralympics Trust, which was set up with a £500,000 government grant.{{cite web |url=http://www.paralympics.org.uk/core_files/menuLinkOrDoc_3%281%29.pdf |publisher=British Paralympic Association |title=BPA History |access-date=7 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609152357/http://www.paralympics.org.uk/core_files/menuLinkOrDoc_3(1).pdf |archive-date=9 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}

Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.{{cite web |title=Paralympics categories explained |publisher=ABC |date=3 September 2008 |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/03/2354016.htm?site=paralympics/2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080912225056/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/03/2354016.htm?site=paralympics/2008 |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 September 2008 |access-date=20 April 2010}}{{cite web |title=Making sense of the categories |work=BBC Sport|date=6 October 2000 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics2000/paralympics/959701.stm |access-date=20 April 2010}} Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Events with "B" in the code are for athletes with visual impairment, codes LW1 to LW9 are for athletes who stand to compete and LW10 to LW12 are for athletes who compete sitting down.{{cite web|title=Sport Profiles, Alpine skiing|url=http://www.paralympic.org.au/Sport/SportProfiles/AlpineSkiing.aspx|publisher=Australian Paralympic Committee|access-date=28 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912232837/http://www.paralympic.org.au/Sport/SportProfiles/Alpine%20Skiing.aspx|archive-date=12 September 2009}} In biathlon events, which contain a target shooting component, blind and visually impaired athletes are able to compete through the use of acoustic signals, whose signal intensity varies dependent upon whether or not the athlete is on target.{{cite web|title=Sport Profiles, Biathlon|url=http://www.paralympic.org.au/Sport/SportProfiles/Biathlon.aspx|publisher=Australian Paralympic Committee|access-date=28 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929140420/http://www.paralympic.org.au/Sport/SportProfiles/Biathlon.aspx|archive-date=29 September 2009}}

{{Main|Alpine skiing at the 1992 Winter Paralympics}}

Eleven British alpine skiers took part in the Games, ten in the men's events and one in the women's. All five of Britain's medals at the Games were won in alpine skiing events. The team's only silver medal was won by Richard Burt in the giant slalom B3 classification and he also won a bronze in the super-G B3.{{Cite news|last=Ramsay |first=Alix|title=Burt disappointed by bronze-winning run| work=The Times|at=Sport section| date=27 March 1992}}{{Cite news|last=Ramsay |first=Alix|title=Burt claims silver for bright finish| work=The Times|at=Sport section |date=1 April 1992}} Burt almost missed his silver medal run when race officials started prematurely resetting the slalom course, but Burt's sighted guide Keith Hockley noticed and took him up the mountain to complete the race.{{Cite news|last=Ramsay |first=Alix|title=Burt's route to gold is via official chaos| work=The Times|at=Sport section |date=3 April 1992}} Matthew Stockford, the reigning world champion in downhill, won three bronze medals in the downhill, super-G and giant slalom events of the LW10 classification.{{Cite news|last=Ramsay |first=Alix|title=Champion tries a secret weapon| work=The Times|at=Sport section |date=4 April 1992}} After Stockford won the bronze in downhill, the British delegation filed a protest claiming that the two American skiers ahead of him should not have been in the LW10 category.{{Cite news|last=Ramsay |first=Alix|title=Ski team protests| work=The Times|at=Sport section |date=30 March 1992}} The medical committee rejected the protest on the grounds that all classifications had been determined at the start of the competition. Both Burt and Stockford would go on to win medals at the 1994 Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer.

;Men

;Women

{{Main|Biathlon at the 1992 Winter Paralympics}}

Four British men competed in biathlon events, all of them in the visually impaired classifications. None of the athletes won a medal, the highest placed finisher being Peter Young who came sixth in the B1 {{convert|7.5|km|mi}}. Young, James Brown and James Denton also competed in cross-country skiing events at the Games.

;Men

{{Main|Cross-country skiing at the 1992 Winter Paralympics}}

Three British men took part in cross-country skiing at the 1992 Games; all three also competed in biathlon events. Each athlete entered both the {{convert|10|km|mi}} and {{convert|30|km|mi}} for their classification and all three teamed up for the B1-3 3×{{convert|5|km|mi}} relay, in which the team finished last out of the five competing nations. Peter Young achieved the best finish in an individual event, sixth place in the 10 km B1, he had previously won a bronze medal in the event at the 1984 Innsbruck Games. Both Brown and Denton failed to place in the top ten in their individual events.

;Men

• Great Britain at the Paralympics
• Great Britain at the 1992 Winter Olympics

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.paralympic.org/Sport/Results/index.html Results database at the International Paralympic Committee official website]

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Category:Nations at the 1992 Winter Paralympics

1992

Paralympics

Category:Winter sports in the United Kingdom