Making its debut as a discipline of IPC Alpine Skiing, para-snowboard burst into the Paralympic Winter Games at Sochi 2014 and enters the 2014 IPC Top 50 Moments at No. 18.<br />After years of campaigning by a committed group of riders and organisations, and as a result of cooperation between the International Paralympic Committee, World Snowboard Federation and the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, athletes competed in men’s and women’s snowboard cross at Rosa Khutor.<br />At the forefront of the push was Dutch world champion Bibian Mentel-Spee. A former able-bodied rider, Mentel-Spee secured her place in history by winning the first ever women’s Paralympic gold medal in para-snowboard that day. She was joined on the podium by France’s Cecile Hernandez-Cervillon and American Amy Purdy.
