Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

sent a competitor to the

2018 Winter Paralympics The 2018 Winter Paralympics (), the 12th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, were an international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the Internation ...

Pyeongchang Pyeongchang ( , ; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seo ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Their sole competitor was alpine skier Mehmet Çekiç. Turkey made an effort to qualify in other sports, including wheelchair curling, but proved unable to win spots in the Games for those. Turkey is a recent competitor as nations go, making its first Winter Paralympics appearance at the 2014 Games.

Team

In December 2017, the

National Paralympic Committee A National Paralympic Committee (NPC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Paralympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), NPCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the ...

of Turkey announced that one person would go to

. Alpine skier

Mehmet Çekiç Mehmet Çekiç (born 1 January 1970) is a Turkish Paralympic alpine skier who competes in the LW4 disability class of men's slalom, standing and giant slalom, standing events. He represented his country, Turkey, at the 2014 Sochi and 2018 ...

was the person selected. The National Paralympic Committee provided Çekiç with all the resources he needed. This was done with assistance from Turkey's national ski federation. The country wanted to send more people to South Korea for the Games. People had problems with the qualifications for the Games. The President of the National Paralympic Committee of Turkey said they wanted to send more people to the 2022 Winter Paralympics. They would work hard to make that happen. Financial problems and being responsible for 18 sports made securing more positions for Pyeongchang difficult. The table below contains the list of members of people (called "Team Turkey") that will be participating in the 2018 Games. Turkey tried to go to the 2018 Winter Paralympics in wheelchair curling. Turkey Physically Disabled Sports Federation Wheelchair Curling was created a year before the ability to get the right to go by winning the Wheelchair Curling World Championships B Tournament. The team had many problems, and did not do well. They did not earn the right to compete. The team was coached by Gökçe Ulugay. It included wheelchair curlers Züleyha Bingöl, Kenan Coşkun, Serpil Arslan, Mesut Güle and Turan Akalın. The competition was the first international tournament Turkey participated in. Skiers from Turkey also tried to get the right to go to

. Like wheelchair curlers in Turkey, the skiers had many challenges. They were not able to get the right to compete.

Para-alpine skiing

Schedule and results

The first event on the para-alpine program is the downhill. It starts on 10 March, running from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The second event on the program is Super-G. All skiers will race 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 Para-alpine skiing is an adaptation of alpine skiing for athletes with a disability. The sport evolved from the efforts of disabled veterans in Germany and Austria during and after the Second World War. The sport is governed by the International ...

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.

History

Turkey went to the 2014 Winter Paralympics. It was the first time Turkey competed at the Winter Paralympics. The Winter Sports division of the National Paralympic Committee was created in 2012. This was two years before the start of the 2014 Winter Paralympics. Esat Hilmi Bayindir earned the right to go. Because of a process to help countries that are underrepresented at the Paralympics, Mehmet Çekiç was invited to participate. This process is called Bipartite Invitation. Esat Hilmi Bayindir was in a traffic accident. Because of this, he has a disability. At the time of the 2014 Winter Paralympics, the skier was living in the United States. He started skiing in 1982. Mehmet Çekiç started skiing in France in 2011. In 2013, Çekiç went to alpine skiing competition in France and Italy. Because of a traffic accident in 2009, he has a disability. After the 2014 Winter Paralympics, Turkey hoped they could go to the 2018 Winter Paralympics.

Tickets

The only

authorized Authorization or authorisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences), in information security, computer security and identity management, IAM (Identity and Access Managemen ...

ticket seller in Turkey for the Paralympic Games was Setur.

References

{{Countries at the 2018 Paralympic Games

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Nations at the 2018 Winter Paralympics 2018 in Turkish sport