Prior to the start of the Vancouver Paralympics, Russian cross-country skiing and biathlon head coach Irina Gromova predicted her squad would struggle for medals. Instead, her countrymen have dominated the proceedings through four days of competition, leading the event with 15 medals, including six golds. With the cross-country skiers accounting for seven medals and the biathletes the rest, she attributed Russia's success to a changing attitude toward disabled people in her country over the past 20 years. “We train a lot of people with disabilities. They train just as much as able-bodied athletes, not less than them at least. They can be as good,” said Gromova. Her diverse charges include Valery Darovskikh, a former soldier shot during the Afghan war, to Kirill Mikhaylov, a two-time gold medalist at these Games. Gromova, a former cross-country skier, initially got into coaching as a hobby through her husband, a former ski jumper who broke his neck diving in 1982. Alana Nichols won the sit-ski giant slalom Tuesday to become the first American woman with gold medals in the summer and winter games. Nichols finished with a combined time of 2 minutes, 57.57 seconds, 4.21 ahead of fellow American Stephani Victor.Japan's Kuniko Obinata won bronze. No stopping Axelsson Hakan Axelsson is a Vancouver Paralympics rarity as the only athlete in the Games with both visual impairment and an amputation. A former Swedish national team cross-country skier when he was able-bodied, the 52-year-old fireman had his left leg removed in 2005 after initially injuring it in 1999 in a piste machine accident on a snow course. “There was so much pressure up at the top,” Nichols said, “I just put it out in faith.” Nichols also won with the US wheelchair basketball team at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.
