Soldier Hollow ? site of 2002 Winter Olympic cross country, biathlon and nordic combined events ? will host five days of cross country skiing during the Paralympics.
Male and female competitors are divided into three categories: sit-ski, standing and visually impaired. Skiers from the three categories will compete together in some events, and will be separated in others.
Standing skiers could have a disability to one leg, both legs, one arm or both arms.
Some sit-ski racers have no functional sitting balance, others have good balance.
Sit-ski racers compete using a specially designed chair, called a sledge, that is attached to a pair of skis. Skiers propel themselves forward using two poles.
Visually impaired athletes are accompanied by a guide, who skis ahead giving directions ? either vocally or by radio ? of turns, inclines and declines in the course. The guide is also awarded a medal if the skier wins.
Salt Lake resident Steve Cook, who will compete as a stand-up skier, could win a gold medal. Cook, 33, lost his right leg below the knee in a 1988 farm accident, but the accident didn't slow him down; it motivated him to play more sports. He began mountain bike racing in 1990, then switched to cycling in 1993 and raced at the Summer Paralympics three years later.
Cook, a gold medalist at the 2000 cross country world championships, could win gold Tuesday in the 10-kilometer race or March 16 in the 20-kilometer race.
He is one of several cross country team members who has competed in a variety of sports as a disabled athlete.
Robert Balk, for example, fell from a roof in 1988 and was paralyzed from the waist down. Since then, the manager of Boeing's Venture Capital Investments has played wheelchair basketball and won two silver medals in the pentathlon and javelin at the 1996 Summer Paralympics.
Another team member, who lost his arm in a roofing accident, still competes in triathalons.
One medal contender, Mike Crenshaw of Boulder, Co., is almost 50 years old.
"I do this stuff because racing is racing and racing is rewarding, no matter how you do it," says Crenshaw, who lost his lower right leg in a farming accident. "As you go along, you realize everyone's messed up somehow. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. We all got problems. It's a matter of what you do with them."
E-MAIL: jhyde@desnews.com