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Winter Paralympics 2022: Everything you need to know about the sports

The Olympic ad Paralympic 2022 mascots.Image source, Getty Images

If you enjoyed the 2022 Olympic Games you've got a treat in store as there's more thrilling snow and ice action coming your way!

The Winter Paralympics 2022 takes place in Beijing in China from 4-13 March.

Here's our rundown of five winter sports to look forward to...

Para Alpine Skiing

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Image caption,

Menna Fitzpatrick and Jen Kehoe won a gold, two silvers and a bronze in 2018 to become Britain's most successful Winter Paralympians

Athletes use their speed and agility to ski down slopes at speeds of around 100km/h (60 miles an hour), across five different events including slalom where athletes have to ski between poles.

There are three competition categories - standing, sitting and vision-impaired. Results take into account each athlete's disability when calculating a time.

Para Alpine skiers who are blind or visually impaired, have a guide to help them race down the mountain. Some guides use speakers strapped to their backs while others give athletes directions using headsets.

Wheelchair Curling

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Image caption,

Scotland's Meggan Dawson Farrell World Wheelchair Curling Championship, part of a Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games test event

The sport is similar to the Olympic version but with one key difference - no sweeping is allowed, meaning pushing the stone accurately is even more important.

From a stationary wheelchair, the athlete delivers the stone either using their hand and arm or using a stick with a bracket which fits over the handle of the stone. The team which places the most stones closest to the centre of the target wins the point.

Teams are comprised of mixed male and female athletes who have a physical disability in the lower half of their body.

Para Snowboard

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Image caption,

Owen Pick who competed in 2018 Paralympic Games could be part of team GB in Beijing

Para snowboard features three disciplines: snowboard-cross, banked slalom and giant slalom.

In snowboard cross, boarders race down a course with various terrain features such as banks, rollers and jumps.

Banked slalom is an event where the athletes race on a course with banked turns. All competitors take three timed runs. The best timed run determines the final results.

Para Ice Hockey

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The USA won gold at the 2018 Paralympic Games

In para ice hockey, players sit in double-blade sledges to whizz around on the ice.

It's fast and furious, and very physical - no wonder it's one of the biggest attractions for sports fans!

Athletes use specially-designed sledges fitted with two blades so they can move across the ice. They also have two playing sticks - both to push the sledge along like a ski pole, as well as to control and shoot the puck.

Great Britain has never won a medal in the sport and last competed in 2006 so there isn't a GB para ice hockey team going to Beijing. Instead the countries to watch are USA and Canada.

USA recently won gold in the World Championships.

Para Nordic Skiing

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Image caption,

Scott Meenagh competes in the Men's Sprint Sitting 6km Biathlon during the World Para Snow Sports Championships

There are two competitions in this sport - cross-country skiing and biathlon - the sport is a test of endurance and skill.

The cross-country element has been part of the Winter Paralympics since the first ever Games in Sweden in 1976 while biathlon started in 1988. Athletes with a visual disability were included four years later.

Biathlon evolved from thousands of years ago when Scandinavians hunted on skis using a rifle.

In para biathlon, athletes with vision impairments use rifles which make a sound to help them aim. Depending on the signal intensity, the noise indicates when the athlete is on target.