Captions by Pippa Jefferies and Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014 DRAMATIC MUSIC Thrills, spills, glamour and glory. This was the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. DRAMATIC MUSIC The resort town of Sochi, on the Black Sea, was host to the 2014 Winter Paralympics. Paralympics NZ sent just three athletes to Sochi, but the team includes a world champion and defending gold medallist. Adam Hall won his gold medal in Vancouver 2010. Carl Murphy was ranked number one in the world in 2013. And Corey Peters, the new kid on the block, has climbed steadily through the rankings on his journey to Sochi. ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the opening of the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. As an athlete, the opening ceremony is like a punctuation point. All of the athletes here tonight would have been preparing for these Games for years. But when you enter that stadium, the realisation hits of the size of the stage upon which you're about to perform. CHOIR SINGS ETHEREAL TUNE CHOIR CONTINUES SINGING This stadium is a hub of the Olympic park. 547 athletes from 45 countries will march into the stadium in front of 40,000 spectators. NZ. NZ. Nouvelle-Zelande. PEOPLE APPLAUD NZ's flag bearer Adam Hall, 2010 Paralympic gold medallist in the men's standing slalom. Corey Peters. PEOPLE CHEER PEOPLE CHEER Rusa Federatia. PEOPLE CHEER PEOPLE CHEER The athletes of the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. It's been 10 years since I first entered the Paralympic arena, but being here tonight ` it feels like just yesterday. (SINGS IN RUSSIAN) Popular singer Yulia Samoylova was one of the 150 people with disabilities taking part in the opening ceremony. (CONTINUES SINGING) (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS PEOPLE CHEER TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS Day one, and the competition's begun, but not for the Kiwis. They've been up the mountain getting familiar with the course and checking out the condition of the snow. It's a vital part of their preparation. For the nine days of competition, the athletes live in a village away from family and media. Reporters grab any moment we can ` when the coaches allow it. Really looking forward to it. I'm really excited. I'm really pumped. I'm feeling really confident, really strong and can't wait to get across that finish line and see my name on the finish board. It's gonna be a special moment. Jon Santacana with his guide Miguel Galindo. Number one in the world rankings. One of the first events was for visually impaired skiers. If you think hurtling down these moments at over 100km/h is courageous, then imagine doing it with little or no sight. Oh, he's inside. Brilliant last hit from Santacana. The skis is dangerous. It's, uh... you must, uh, take a risk. Sometimes people crash. It's normal. Each athlete has a radio link to their guide, who talks them through the course. The guides must be no more than one gate length ahead. On the top of the last ridge, before the final descent, the crowd goes completely silent, ensuring the visually impaired skier can hear final directions to the finish gate. Henrieta Farkasova of Slovakia takes the gold medal in the visually impaired category. LMFAO'S 'SEXY AND I KNOW IT' PLAYS Day two delivers summer temperature. It's 18 degrees Celsius, not the expected conditions for a Winter Paralympics. We're 1500m high here in the mountains, but as you can see, outside of the competition courses, there is hardly any snow. PEOPLE CHATTER PEOPLE CHATTER (SPEAKS RUSSIAN) First day of competition for the Kiwis ` it's the Super G. This is a hard-out speed event. You get one shot on a steep and technically demanding course. Adam Hall is in the standing event. BUZZER BLARES The downhill champion from these Games, Markus Salcher. He's also a world champion. He's got stiff competition. Austria's Markus Salcher has been winning every event in the lead-up to these Games. He was born with the right side of his body paralysed. He gets the skis a little sideways. 1:22.59. Was a little wide of the line, but he's good enough for first place at the moment ` 1.67. With such high temperatures, the snow is patchy and slushy. The Australian ` oh no! If you hit one of the holes or ruts, it's difficult to keep control. Hallat falls in sight of the finish. Skis have difficulty sliding in such sticky snow. Oh! 12 skiers failed to finish. Adam Hall from NZ in the old W-1 class... Adam Hall's best in the technical events, like slalom, but he's been doing a lot of speed work recently. You can see how strong Adam's thighs are. They're giving him power and stability, offsetting his lower limbs, which are so weak, he has the tips of his skis tethered together. Setting up for the late jump here. Over the late jump. 1 minute, 51. The next time split. And this is gonna be close. He's inside. 1700. Oh no! Hall goes down with a light green! Oh, can you believe it? A real disappointment. Oh dear, dear, dear. That Hall was a real contender for a medal here. I came out, you know, wanting` wanting to be on top of the podium, so, you know, at this level of sport, that's what it takes. You have to put stuff on the line, and if it means falling, ending up in the B-Nets, if it, you know, ends up whatever it is, uh, you know, you hope to be across the finish line in a strong position. I felt like I was heading towards that direction, you know, so unfortunately I didn't finish today, but we'll look forward to the Super Combi and the slalom. Next up was the Super G for sit-skiers ` Corey Peters' event. UPBEAT MUSIC Sit-skiing is known as the craziest sport of Winter Paralympics. They can reach speeds of 120km/h. In sight of the finish here. Oh, he's really motoring. He's gonna smash the time. Under 1.20 ` 1:19.51. Kano leads by two seconds, and that time is gonna take some beating. Only a slight bump can start a cartwheel, leaving them tumbling across the mountain. 14 skiers have not made it to the finish. And if you're down the starting line-up like Corey, it only gets more dangerous. So, Corey Peters of NZ, the next skier. It's his first Paralympic Games. Corey crushed his spine in a motocross accident in 2009, so he's used to high speed. He says it's all about balance. And it's fifth ` 6.6 seconds off the pace. PEOPLE CHEER I got to about the third gate, and I thought, 'Shit, I'm in for a bit of a rodeo ride here,' and sure enough it was a really bumpy course. Over half the field, I think, crashed out. Yeah, yeah, first Paralympic race and, you know, managed to finish, which is` it's a bonus. And being his first Paralympics, Corey wasn't expecting the amount of public interest in him. I got a bit mobbed by the` by the locals. It made you feel quite cool, you know, quite proud, getting to sign. They were all running up to you and getting you to sign their bits of paper and things like that and wanting photos with you, and that's something I haven't really experienced before, so that was quite a... it was overwhelming but, you know, quite pleasing as well. Cheering crowds are not the usual for these athletes. Yeah, the crowds are really good. The skiers come over that last pitch, and they just erupt into, like, a loud cheer. Corey being in a wheelchair and a sit-ski, he works his arms, back, neck, shoulders a lot, so it can get quite tight, so we just work on it each day to keep things loose so he's fresh and fighting fit for competition in the coming days. DRAMATIC MUSIC In the women's Super G, there are 15 competitors, but it's a competition dominated by Marie Bouchet. She's won one gold already, while down the field is Stephanie Jallen. Stephanie Jallen of the United States now. The 18-year-old in her first major competition. What can she do here? 18-year-old Stephanie was born with a rare congenital defect affecting the entire left side of her body. It left her with one arm and one leg. In terms of balance, it's incredibly difficult. 57mph ` absolutely incredible. When she started adaptive skiing at age 9, they wanted to tether her to an instructor in a bi-ski. She insisted on standing up for herself. Oh, she's gonna take the lead! Jallen is in front! PEOPLE CHEER Stephanie Jallen in her first major competition, and she can't believe it. I'm not surprised. The world champion, Marie Bouchet, later took the lead, but Stephanie held on to win bronze, an outstanding result in your first Paralympics. Stephanie Jallen! Well, put your hands together, all you at home, because this is a phenomenal achievement. I'm welling up as I tell you. Stephanie Jallen is quite simply the most extraordinary athlete we've seen at 18 years old. Adam Hall is well aware of the transformative experience of adaptive sport at this level. The feeling that you have out here with a disability is amazing. It basically leaves your disability, um, behind in whatever it is, and the freedom that's up there on the mountain is absolutely amazing, and it gives everybody all the independence that people need. You know, for a lot of people I know it's an amazing feeling. But being the best in any Paralympic discipline doesn't come easy these days. It's a lot of hard work. I mean, you leave NZ and some people think, 'Oh, you're going to the other side of the world for six months or whatever. 'It must be a great life that you live.' But when you're carrying so much luggage around with you all over the world, you're living out of suitcases, you know, you're constantly checking what you're eating, you're weighing yourself all the time to make sure that you're hitting the benchmarks that you wanna be hitting nutritionally, you know, you're training on snow five days a week, um, you're in the gym six days a week, < you maybe have one day off a week if you're lucky. It is a full-time job, and when we're on the road, we're in ski boots all the time. And, you know, by the time you go back to your room, you go to bed at 10 o'clock or whatever, you wake up at 6 o'clock and it happens all over again. The weather in Sochi's thrown another curveball at the athletes. It's raining, and visibility's down to about 20m. The start of the Super Combi has been delayed by an hour. For the Kiwis, this means a change in set-up of their equipment ` how they wax their skis and how they prepare for this challenging race. We've had, uh, three seasons over here so far. We had beach weather, and we had a bit of wind, and, um, today we've had rain. The only thing that we're probably open for would be snow. And we haven't had any, and we're not likely to get any at the moment. Alpine skiing finally got underway mid-afternoon. These competitors in the men's visually impaired Super Combined are amazing. In this fog, what limited vision these skiers have is restricted even further. The snow up on the course will be better than what's here. But just to give you a idea of what it's like, it's soft and crystal-like, almost like a slushy you get at the movies. Between races, organisers were busy dispersing chemicals in an effort to keep the course together. Alexey Bugaev of Russia. His first Paralympics. Finally, the men's Super Combined got underway. This is two races, combining the speed of Super G with the technical skill of slalom. Bugaev! Brilliant skier to watch, and he's skiing this beautifully. Bugaev on a mission here. Can he keep it together? He doesn't wanna make an error in sight of the finish. Bugaev to take the lead away from Luscombe. Surely he'll be inside. He will be inside by 1.87 seconds. 16-year-old Russian Alexey Bugaev did an outstanding run to put him into first place. Adam Hall. He's won three of six slaloms on the world cup tour this year. Adam Hall had to ski a perfect race to beat Bugaev. See the effort going in now. First run going. 28.4 Bugaev's time. Ooh. Good recovery. Brilliant recovery from Adam Hall. Can he finish? Can he get close to Bugaev's time? He can't. It's gone. And he is 2.7 seconds off the pace. Fourth for the time being for Adam Hall. Fourth for the time being for Adam Hall. ALL CHEER A lot of chemicals on the hill, which makes it very inconsistent. A lot of holes. But for me, I was here last season and blew out of the slalom, so... kinda good to blow off the old demons and put a pretty solid run in, and looking forward to tomorrow. The second race of the Super Combined is delayed for another day. So it's time for the sit-ski section, with Corey Peters. The conditions seem to be getting worse again. Oh! No, no, no, no, no. And he gets bounced out. Now, Corey Peters of NZ. Won the Super Combined at the start of the season. First Paralympics. Didn't finish the Super Combined at La Molina. 0.93 off the pace. Oh! That has killed it. On the flattest part of the track, Corey Peters loses all his speed. 58.71 comes and goes. Peters does a good job. 4.53. Goes seventh for the time being. He's finished. SPECTATORS CHEER Yeah, I thought the Super G was rough, but that takes the cake. So bumpy. So I didn't push it the way I wanted to push it. Cos I knew if I pushed it, I'd blow out and I wouldn't get a chance at the Super G portion. Was about almost taking a bit of a safe route down there, and, yeah, wait for the Super G, hopefully. One of the two Paralympic sports taking place down in the Coastal Village is curling. Introduced two Paralympics ago, it's one of the odder winter sports. Mixed-gender teams in wheelchairs on ice slide a 42-pound stone down to a bullseye. Whoever gets their stone closest wins. CHEERING More to my taste is sledge hockey. It's as exciting and brutal as wheelchair rugby, but much quicker. Sledge hockey is dominated by Canada and America. They've won all seven of the Paralympic and world champs held since the first tournament in 2002. This is the first Paralympics the Russians have played in. They only formed their first national team five years ago. When they came face to face with the Americans, they were expected to be beaten comfortably. However, any Russian-American face-off is a special occasion. So here we go. Here's a chance! Declan Farmer` Oh! The 16-year-old. In the opening minutes, the US fired off 10 shots at Russia's second-string goalkeeper without a shot in response. In behind the Russian defence. Working his way in. He's set up nicely. Trying to wrap around. He flips it` Oh! And he almost tucked it nearside. Oh, there, it's right in front. Pauls shoots, and another save! Oh, it's a shooting gallery. Farmer and Roybal. Farmer. Oh, and he's denied, point-blank. Many of the American players are 10-year veterans. Their goalkeeper has never, in three Paralympics, allowed a goal to get past. Until tonight. One man has a shot ` and he scores! SPECTATORS CHEER The Russians were determined to avenge their loss to the Americans in the Olympics two weeks earlier. Here comes Petrov, sizing it up. SPECTATORS CHEER SPECTATORS CHEER And a breakaway this way! The shot ` and a goal. It goes in off of Roybal. WILD CHEERING Swinging their hockey sticks like swords, they clashed in a game that seemed to be more than about sport. Tension were high after a week of political confrontation over events in Ukraine. Oh, there's a chance! And another huge save! Two of the American team are ex-Marines, wounded in Afghanistan. Five of the Russians are veterans of the war in Chechnya. Landeros again, walking in. Can he get a shot off? It's right there! It's right there, and it's iiiiin! CHEERING By Cash. Lisov with the puck, and there he is! The Americans got a late goal, but they were unable to overcome an inspired Russian team, who won 2-1. The Russians are gonna hold out and win. It's over! What a story. What a script. The Russians on the doorstep of out on their own soil. Wow! What a game. The Paralympics is an intense experience, so you need space to be able to relax your body and mind. Team NZ's base in the athletes' village has been created with this in mind. It's a bit like a Dunedin flat full of your best mates. But there's always the constant thought of competition in the back of your mind. These guys have devoted years to training, all so they can hurtle down a mountain faster than anyone else. I set my sights on the Paralympics, um, right from when I first got in the sit-ski, I guess. Within that first week, I was, like, this was what I wanted to do, so, um, yeah, I just set my sights on the highest level possible. I'm just super-competitive when it comes to sport, and I just wanna be` I wanna be the best. I don't wanna be remembered as, like, the 10th best sit-skier or the 15th, you know, I wanna be remembered as, you know, the best, and have people talk about you in years to come. I guess once you get one podium, it carries on ` you just wanna keep getting on them. Corey Peters, sixth after the first run. Yesterday in the slalom, Corey hit a deep rut and only managed 16th. He's hoping to make up for it today in the final run of the Super Combi. Corey's specialty is technical skiing rather than a straight speed event like this. But Corey just can't catch a break. He misses out on a medal, finishing fourth. I'm stoked for a fourth, obviously first Paralympics, but would've been nice to take something home. I'm gonna continue doing it until I get to the top. Then it was time for the snowboard cross. It's an historic day of competition because it is the first time that para-snowboard cross has been included in the Winter Paralympics programme. The women's racing was dominated by Bibian Mentel-Spee. Bibian was a snowboarding instructor until she lost her leg to cancer and went on to become a Paralympian. Mentel-Spee for the gold medal. Can she break a minute for a second time? She can. An historic gold medallist in this inaugural women's para-snowboard cross in Sochi. The men's section of the snowboard cross featured Kiwi Carl Murphy. His first two runs were smooth and fast, and he was threatening to break into the American-dominated top three spots. But he pushed his luck too far in the pursuit of a medal and hit the deck in his last run. His final place, just off the podium in fourth place. SPECTATORS CHEER Things didn't quite go my way, unfortunately. Last run, I had nothing to lose, basically, and, um, came unstuck pretty close to the top. As soon as I fell over then, I knew that it all slipped away for me. Oh well, that's racing. Still happy with fourth at the Paralympics, but obviously a podium spot would've been a lot better. A very respectable fourth place for the 34-year-old NZer. Adam Hall's biggest event in Sochi was defending his gold medal in the slalom. This is Adam's last event of Sochi 2014. As usual, he'll be giving his all on what's proved to be a difficult course. Adam lives with spina bifida. Of all the standing skiers, he's one of the guys with the least amount of function. To balance this, ski racing uses a factoring system that accounts for people with different levels of disability. It's a bit like a handicap system in golf, but it's not a perfect science. 51 athletes in this category, the largest field we've had. Adam was up against skiers with a lot more function, including the Russian sensation Alexey Bugaev. Now, Alexey Bugaev was electric... in the first run. I think the game plan must be just take it a little easy on these top turns. No, he's going full bore, isn't he? Bugaev, the 16-year-old, looking for his first gold. He's got two bronze medals already. Bugaev in sight of the finish. He must take the gold. He does! Brilliant skiing from Alexey Bugaev. Now, next in the start gate, the defending Winter Paralympic champion Adam Hall from NZ. Got an awful lot to do. He was seventh quickest after the first run. He tops the world cup standings in slalom this year. What most people didn't know is that Adam was sick going into this race and had barely been able to eat or drink all day. The final steep pitch. Whoa! Just getting caught on the inside edge and having to re-correct now. How much time has that taken? It was a big ask. Even so, Adam finished an amazing fourth, agonisingly close to being on the podium. To be able to represent the silver fern and NZ is a great honour and a privilege. I've always said so long as I can be one of those best in the world, then I'll keep on going, keep pushing the limits. The great thing about adaptive sport is that you get to push the limits ` no one really knows what they are. So what we do, I think, really showcases to the world about what the possibilities are. TRIUMPHANT MUSIC Ooh! No, no, no, no. Whoa! No, no, no, no, no. ACTION MUSIC There was one final race to go. In an outcome that was totally unexpected, it was the newbie, Corey Peters, who had Kiwi spectators holding their breath. Watch the final moments on AttitudeLive.com. Captions by Pippa Jefferies and Tracey Dawson. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014 The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games.