Australia at the 1992 Winter Paralympics
| Australia at the 1992 Winter Paralympics |
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| IPC code | AUS | ||||||||
| NPC | Australian Paralympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website | www |
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| in Tignes-Albertville | |||||||||
| Competitors | 5 in 1 sport | ||||||||
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Medals Ranked 12th |
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| Winter Paralympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Australia competed at the 1992 Winter Paralympics in Tignes and Albertville in France. They were the first winter Paralympics to be celebrated concurrently with the Olympic Games. The official logo of the Games was designed by Jean-Michel Folon.It depicts a bird with broken wings, soaring high across the peak of a mountain. This was used to reflect the sporting abilities of the athletes at the Games. The official mascot, Alpy, designed by Vincent Thiebaut, represented the summit of the Grande Motte mountain in Tignes. Alpy was shown on a mono-ski to demonstrate its athleticism and the colours of white, green and blue were used to represent purity/snow, hope/nature and discipline/the lake. The 1992 Games were where Australia won their first winter medals at the Paralympics. Michael Milton won Australia's first gold with a win in the Men's Slalom LW2. Milton also won a silver medal in the Men's Super G LW2. At these Games, Australia was represented by 5 male athletes. Australia was placed 12th in the overall medal tally for the Winter Games winning a total of 4 medals: 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze.
On 16 October 1986 at the IOC session in Lausanne, Switzerland Albertville in France was awarded the right to host the 1992 winter Olympic Games. Almost a year earlier in November 1985 André Auberger, President of the French Sport Federation for the Disabled, had written to Michel Barnier, President of the French Olympic bid committee, to request that they also consider hosting the Paralympic Games should their Olympic bid be successful. On November 3rd1986 Barnier confirmed his support to the request and on 31 January 1987 at the meeting of the International Co-ordinating Committee in Copenhagen, Denmark the right to host the 1992 winter Paralympic Games was awarded to France. The contract was finally signed on 22 April 1989.
The opening ceremony for the Tignes winter Paralympic Games commenced at 4.00pm on Wednesday 25 March at the foot of the main competition pistes for the Games. Guest of Honour for the ceremony was President of the French Republic Francois Mitterrand who arrived at 5.00pm. The delegations entered the arena in French alphabetical order and every 45 seconds a para-glider in the colours of each country descended into the arena and spread out in front of the delegations. Short speeches by the President of the ICC Jens Broman and the French President were followed by the official opening of the Games by President Mitterrand. This was followed by the entrance of the Paralympic flame and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron by French Nordic skier Luc Sabatier assisted by Fabrice Guy. The athletes and officials oaths were then taken by Ludovic Rey-Robert on behalf of the athletes and a currently unknown female official. This was followed by an aerobatic display by six hang-gliders over the stadium to music by French composer Michel Colombier, choreographed by American dancer Dany Ezralow with the harmonica solo being performed by Belgian musician Toots Thielemans. The ceremony ended with the release of balloons to the strains of ‘The Ode to Joy’ followed by the exit of the team delegations.
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