Neither snow nor sleet nor winter in general has kept United Spinal from its self-appointed mission to get members out and active.
by Terry Moakley
Adaptive skiing developed in Scandinavia before World War II, but sit-skiing for those with disabilities who are unable to stand was conceived in the US in the late 1970s when paraplegic engineer Peter Axelson adapted a Norwegian sled to give the user better control of speed and direction. Axelson founded a company called Beneficial Designs to manufacture his Arroya Sit- ski in 1981.
Five years later, Recreation staffer Pierce Bunce began to hold sit-ski clinics for members of what was then known as Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association at the Castle Point VA Medical Center.
I’ve been to the Castle Point facility, perched high atop the Hudson River just north of Beacon, New York, and I can verify that it doesn’t have a ski lift. So how did they return the skiers to the top of the practice hill? Bunce just happened to be driving a pickup in those days, so with some volunteer help, he hoisted the novice skiers, equipment and all, into the back of the truck, strapped them in and drove them back up a winding road to the start point. Not pretty, but these clinics-and later ones at Windham, New York, and Pico Mountain in Killington, Vermont-helped more than a few of our members adopt skiing as a lifelong passion.
During the 1990s, our organization sponsored a skiing team that competed in such events as the annual Ski Spectacular in Colorado and the U.S. Disabled Ski Championships. By that time, the monoski had been invented. The high-tech design of today’s commercially available monoskis enables them to go faster and to turn easier, something readers should be able to see at the March 10-19 Paralympic Games in Torino, Italy.
If you’re able to watch the Torino Games, you should also be able to check out a sport Europeans call “sledge hockey,” which was invented in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1960s. (Here in the US, we call it sled hockey.) Players of this sport sit in a cushioned sled mounted atop hockey skate blades; they propel themselves across the ice using short hockey sticks, with a blade on one end and a “pick” on the other, held in both hands. They shoot the puck with the blade end, and skate by digging the butt end into the ice. All other aspects of sled hockey are pretty much the same as “stand up” ice hockey.
Sled hockey mania in the states started simultaneously in Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1989 and has grown to about 20 adult and youth programs nationwide. Our association got bitten by the bug in 1997 when we learned that one of our member/employees, Angelo Bianco, was named coach of the United States sled hockey team and another, Victor Calise, was named to the team itself. Team U.S.A. wound up in fifth place at the 1998 Paralympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Wheelchair repair mechanic Billy Mount tries out a sit-ski in the early days of the sport. Since the 1970s, adaptive skis have become more sophisticated and stream-lined. Bianco went on to serve as president of our organization from 1999 to 2001; Calise is now United Spinal’s energetic director of Sports Marketing; and the 2002 U.S. Paralympic sled hockey team captured gold at the Salt Lake City Winter Games.
In 2001, United Spinal Association was fortunate to receive the co-sponsorship of our sled hockey team from the New York Islanders National Hockey League franchise, a valued partnership that enables us to offer sled hockey participation to more disabled adults, and more importantly, to teach this growing sport to youngsters with disabilities. And in 2003, a similar sponsorship was extended to us by the New York Rangers NHL team.
The jubilation on the faces of disabled kids at one of our sled hockey clinics as they realize that they can compete in this adaptive sport provides our adult athletes with unforgettable memories.
Terry Moakley, associate executive director of Communications and Public Affairs, is United Spinal’s unofficial historian.
