Georgia to debut at Winter Paralympic Games in PyeongChang

Georgia’s national paralympic team will make their debut at Winter Paralympic Games in South Korea later this week, with two athletes from the country set to compete in PyeongChang.

Para skiers Nino Sabashvili and Temur Dadiani, the first athletes to represent the country at the event, departed for the tournament on Monday.

The historic significance of their participation in the Winter Paralympic Games for Georgia was stressed at their meeting with Mikheil Giorgadze, the Minister of Culture and Sport of Georgia, before the departure.

Our sporting discipline has only been recently launched in Georgia. We have undergone preparations in Germany — these have been difficult, however we are trying to achieve our best”, Sabashvili told reporters at the formal event.

I am humbled and happy to be a pioneering athlete to represent Georgia at its first Winter Paralympic Games. We have hopes for victories [at paralympic tournaments], however achieving these will take gradual preparations”, Dadiani noted in his comments.

The two competitors will look to test their skills in para Nordic skiing, a discipline featured within cross-country skiing at the tournament.

The para Nordic skiing events will be hosted at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre and involve 100 male and 70 female contestants.

Their progress will be followed by supporters of the venue that has a capacity for around 7,500 spectators.

Other sports included in the Games include alpine skiing, biathlon, para ice hockey, snowboard and wheelchair curling.

The PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games will feature 670 athletes from 25 countries, an increase from 539 competitors in Sochi in 2014.

Georgia has only participated at Summer Paralympic Games, with judoka Zviad Gogotchuri claiming the country’s solitary medal at the Rio 2016 event.