Azerbaijan To Send Athlete to Winter Paralympic Games for First Time

For the first time, Azerbaijan will join the Winter Paralympic Games, the country’s National Paralympic Committee reported on Tuesday. 

Mehman Rahmanzade will represent Azerbaijan at this year’s Winter Paralympic Games in China. The athlete, who is the member of the national winter sports team of the paralympic committee, will perform in cross-country skiing category on March 9, 2022.

The Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 4-13, 2022, with athletes competing in 78 different events across six sports in two disciplines: snow sports (alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, and snowboarding) and ice sports (para ice hockey and wheelchair curling). 

Six venues in three different competition zones will host the events in central Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou.

The Games’ motto is a “Joyful Rendezvous upon Pure Ice and Snow.”

The National Paralympic Committee of Azerbaijan, established in 1996, has never before sent an athlete to the Winter Olympics despite numerous participations at summer games, including those held in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. The committee athletes also participated in the competitions held within the 2015 European Games and 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

Azerbaijani athletes grabbed 14 gold, one silver, and four bronze medals in six different sports categories at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games. The team of Azerbaijan ranked 10 in the overall standings.