Japan at the 2018 Winter Paralympics

**Japan** sent people to compete at the **2018 Winter Paralympics** in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  The group from Japan was going to compete in para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, para-snowboarding and sledge hockey.

## Team 
There were three announcements with who would go to the 2018 Winter Games representing Japan.  The second announcement was made on 8 February 2018.  The last announcement was made on 18 February 2018.  The last announcement said two male para-alpine skiers would be going to South Korea. The country has the third largest team among all nations.  It has 38 people.

The table below contains the list of members of people (called "Team Japan") that will be participating in the 2018 Games.

## Para-alpine skiing 
### Schedule and training 
Skiers had training runs for the downhill race on 7 March.  Their practice runs in the downhill on 8 and 9 March were cancelled.

The first event on the para-alpine program was the downhill. It started on 10 March, running from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The second event on the program is Super-G. All skiers raced between 9:30 AM and 1:00 PM on 11 March.  The super combined takes place on 13 March. The Super-G part of the event is in the morning. The slalom part is in the afternoon. The slalom event gets underway on 14 March and conclude on 15 March. Women and men both race during the same sessions in the morning. The afternoon sessions start with the women doing their second run. Then the men go.The last para-alpine skiing race of the 2018 Games is the giant slalom. It takes place on 17 - 18 March.  Men and women both race at the same time in the morning sessions.  Women race first in the afternoon sessions, with the men racing a half hour after they end.

### Results 
Anna Schaffelhuber of Germany won gold in the women's downhill sitting race.  Momoka Muraoka of Japan won silver.  Laurie Stephens of the United States won bronze.

## Para-Nordic skiing 
### Skiers 
Keiichi Sato competes in two sports: para-triathlon and para-Nordic skiing.  The first sport he did was para-Nordic skiing.  As a member of Team Japan, he went to the 2010 and 2014 Winter Paralympics.  After para-triathlon became a Paralympic sport, Sato decided to try it.  He then was part of Team Japan at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. He then went to the 2017 Triathlon World Championships.  After that, he stopped competing in para-triathlon.  He wanted to try to medal at the 2018 Winter Paralympics.  He thought he needed to focus on para-Nordic skiing to do that. The slalom race is scheduled to take place on 16 March, going from 10:30 AM – 4:55 PM for men and women in all classes.

### To the Games 
Japan, Sweden and the Czech Republic were the last 3 teams that were able to go to the 2018 Games. They could go because of how they finished at the Qualification Tournament in October in Ostersund, Sweden in October 2017.

### Schedule and results 
The United States, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Japan were in Group B for the sledge hockey competition.  Japan plays against South Korea on 10 March.  They play the Czech Republic on 13 March. People can watch on NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV channels. Some will be televised with a resolution of 8K.  There are going to be 62 hours of live coverage.
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## References