The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games

The Paralympics always take place a week after the Olympics in the same town. The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, the eleventh of its kind, just saw their closing ceremony Sunday. Forty-five countries participated in 72 medal events in five sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey, and wheelchair curling. 2014 also marked the debut of my favorite winter sport, snowboarding. The USA sent 74 Paralympic athletes, and it was the first Paralympic Winter Games for Brazil, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.A fan, Paul, tweeted me the above video following my previous post on guiding the blind runner, and it inspired this blog post, which gives nod to the Paralympic athletes and the games they play. You thought I’m not one to give up in the face of obstacles and difficulty? These athletes blow me out of the water. So it got me thinking…If you’ve been an avid reader of my blog, you know that I’ve picked up adaptive snowboarding three years ago. I haven’t had a chance to board this season yet, but I’m wondering how feasible it would be to train for an upcoming Paralympic Winter Game as a blind boarder. Eh, who am I kidding? I’ll be in my freaking forties by then, getting my ass whooped by twenty-year-olds who have been boarding since they were two. But I can dream, can’t I? If I’ve learned anything from my time on “MasterChef,” it’s to never be afraid to dream big.As I’ve been quite busy and don’t have cable, I hadn’t caught any of the Sochi Paralympics. (The fact that there is no regular TV coverage of the Paralympics is another topic of debate for another time.) Does anyone know how many medals, if any, the U.S. Team won? How did the snowboarding event go down? What exactly is the nature of the snowboarding event(s)? I'm trying to plan my next victory. ;)