PARA-ALPINE TEAM THINKING BIG

Alpine Canada is bringing its largest ever Canadian Para-Alpine Team
into action for the 2007-08 season, buoying its already strong
national program with several up and coming athletes from the
development and provincial levels that show promise for 2010.

The team was announced in Calgary last week, confirming the
participation of World Cup champions Lauren Woolstencroft of Vancouver
and Chris Williamson of Toronto. Both are veteran Paralympians and
World Cup stars with multiple medals at all levels of
competition.

Woolstencroft was born with no legs below her knees and no left arm
below her elbow, but competes in the women's standing category.
Williamson competes in the visually impaired category that requires
the assistance of a guide.

Other veterans rejoining the team include visually impaired skier
Kathleen Forestell with guide Emily Glossop, visually impaired skier
Carly Grigg with guide Shannon Morley, sit skiers Josh Dueck, Chantal
Fowler and Brad Lennea, and standing skiers Morgan Perrin, Mathew
Hallat and Arly Fogarty. Whistler is home to both Hallatt and Lennea.

Missing from the roster this year is sit skier Kimberly Joines, who
received a nine-month suspension after testing positive for marijuana
use in January. At the time she was applying to Health Canada to be
allowed to use medical marijuana, and received an opinion from the
Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport that marijuana use would be
allowed even though it was listed as a banned substance by the
International Paralympic Committee.

She will rejoin the team for the start of the season once her
suspension is completed.

The Para-Alpine team also regained the veteran leadership of Karolina
Wisniewska, a standing skier who won four medals at Salt Lake City in
2002 but stepped back from competing for the past three years to focus
on her education and career.

"This team has a good mix of veterans as well as young athletes who
are going to push the veterans every step of the way as we pursue our
goal of being the best in the world," said CPAST high performance
director Jean-Francois Rapatel. "We are increasing our focus on a high
level of fitness and we are going to continue to utilize resources
available through our coaching staff and Performance Enhancement Team
as we build on last season's success."

The team will be immersed in a summer program that includes training
at Mt. Hood in Oregon and in Chile, in addition to physical testing in
Whistler and various dryland training camps.

It's still unknown who will be coaching the team this year with the
departure of both Leslie Clarke and Matt Kerr from the program.

This year's international competition schedule includes races in
Austria, France, Korea and Japan.