Disabled ski support launched

Ruapehu Bulletin, 22 June 1993, Page 2 (Supplement)

Disabled ski support launched

The colours blue and gold were the talk of Ohakune last night for the launch of a major initiative to support New Zealand's worldbeating Disabled Ski Team. Known as 'Blue for Gold', the initiative will help top athletes take gold at next year's Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway. For the next three months 10 cents from every litre of Steinlage Blue sold in Ohakune and in more than 100 selected bars and bottle stores in the North Island will help get the team to Lillehammer. 'Blue for Gold' was launched in the home town of New Zealand's most successful disabled skier, Patrick Cooper, winner of two golds and a silver at the last two Paralympics. Although the national

squad is currently training in Wanaka, Patrick and the coach of the national team, Peter McAllum, sent a recorded message to the guests from the team's base in Wanaka. "It's great to know that while we're away training down south, the people of Ohakune and the North Island are

suppoi;ting the New Zealand Disabled Ski Team in this way," Patrick told the crowd. Peter McAllum said the support through 'Blue for Gold' arrived just when the team needed it most. "With a string of world class performances behind them, our top skiers have everything going for them

but money. The support of the community through Steinlager Blue will help these top athletes prove themselves against the best in the world", McAllum said. The New Zealand ski team has consistently ranked among the best in the world during the past six years. Last year alone, the team won 45 medals on the U.S. cir-

cuit, making its members among New Zealand's most successful sportspeople. Patrick Cooper is the best performed at international level, with gold in the super giant slalom and slalom at the 1992 winter Paralympics at Albertville, France, and silver at the 1987 Paralympics in

Innsbruck, Austria. A below-the-knee amputee as a result of an accident at age five, Patrick last year won an incredible four golds and one silver medal in the U.S. National Championships and is highly ranked in the able-bod-ied competition.