12/23/09

Skiing in Paralympic



Skiing has always been a trademark sport of winter games, Paralympic or Olympic. In fact, the first winter competition held for people with disabilities, in 1948, was an internationally competitive three-track skiing contest. Today, the Paralympic Games ski-print the slopes with two main skiing events: Nordic skiing and Alpine skiing.

In popularity, Paralympic ice sled hockey—with its aggressiveness, competitiveness and parallels to Olympic ice hockey—draws the largest crowd of spectators. Wheelchair curling slides into the lineup, adding a new element to the Games.

Paralympics Past

Roots of the Winter Paralympics trace back to Austria, where Sepp Zwicknagl, a double-leg amputee, was among the first individuals to use prostheses to ski down a slope. Other innovations followed, such as the three-track skiing method, where an athlete uses one leg and two crutches. In 1948, seventeen athletes navigated the first course designed for three-track skiing, and a year later the first Austrian Championships were held in Badgastein, Austria.

The sport moved to Grand Bornand, France, in 1974 for the first world championships in three-track skiing. The events were downhill and cross-country skiing for athletes who had low vision or amputations.

Two years later, in 1976, the first Paralympic Winter Games were conducted in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. Subsequently the Games moved to Geilo, Norway, in 1980 and then back to Austria for the 1984 events in Innsbruck. World recognition grew in 1984 when exhibition skiing events for Paralympic athletes were held during the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, and the following Paralympic Games (1988 in Innsbruck, Austria) saw 397 athletes from 22 countries compete.

In 1994, the Paralympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, added ice sled hockey, which became an immediate crowd favorite. The Lillehammer Paralympics marked the first time the Paralympic Winter Games were held in the same location as the Winter Olympics, a tradition that has continued through an agreement of cooperation between the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee.

The 1998 Nagano Winter Paralympics in Japan were the first to be held outside of Europe, and the following Games in 2002 in Salt Lake City were the first on U.S. soil, hosting 406 athletes. The 2002 Games proved that public interest in the Paralympics was solid, with 85 percent of the 250,000 available tickets sold.

Reed also the topic Paralympic: Where heroes come  with your pupils

12/6/09

Christmas Carol in Greece


As elsewhere, the Christmas tree is a recent innovation and formerly (and indeed still on some islands today) a Christmas ship was decorated and had the place of the tree. This Christmas ship or "karavaki" (ie. little ship) is sometimes carried around by carol-singers on Christmas Eve, New year's Eve and on the Eve of Epiphany. It is usually little children who sing the "kalanda" or carols holding triangles very early on these mornings for a few coins. Letter to pupils Italian  English



The Kalanda of new year I post here is mix Greek and  English words




If you like it here is the lyrics to download

A performance at school  plenty of music and Kalanda directed by me two years ago  is following

12/4/09

Together we can do!



In our school we celebrated the International disability day by presenting to pupils, parents, and our Comenius friends , what we can do together. We also have watched an amazing performance by the pupils of Special High School (EEEK Giannitson) and we painted our thoughts about a better world for pupils and people with special needs and or special educational needs.
 

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