2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships preparations underway

February 16, 2013 Preparations are underway ahead of the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championship, with a flag exchange taking place Tuesday, volunteer recruitment ongoing, unveiling a new uniform for their team, skiers like the United States's Jon Lujan actively training for the event and other skiers competing in preparation for the Championships in a World Cup event Wednesday.

Tuesday in La Molina, Spain, the president of, Enric Ticó, and the mayor of , Ramon Moliner, were gifted with flags by representatives of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and at a ceremony in  at one of the first official events ahead of the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championship, which starts next week. As of Wednesday, event organisers were still seeking volunteers to assist with running the Championship. The opening ceremonies are scheduled for next Tuesday.

Entering the event, skiers had the opportunity to qualify through eight events held with only two disciplines on the program,  and. The first four were held in, Italy, with the most recent four all being held in , Switzerland. Standing female French skier Marie Bochet has won six World Cups ahead of the World Championships and is considered by event organizers as a favorite in the standing group. Russian standing skier Alexey Bugaev is also considered a favorite by organisers as he won two Slalom and one Giant Slalom World Cup competition. In the women's, German Anna Schaffelhuber is considered the favorite having prepared for the Championships by winning five of the eight World Cup events. On the men's sit-ski side, Japanese Takeshi Suzuki and Swiss Christoph Kunz both earned three World Cup victories in the lead up to this competition. In the women's visually impaired group, Slovak Henrieta Farkasova will enter the competition with five World Cup victories. On the men's side, Spanish Jon Santacana is favored to win with three Giant Slalom and one Slalom victory during this year's World Cup events in the lead up to the World Championships.

British Combined Services Disabled Ski Team coach Mark Scorgie has noted that this year's European ski season has been problematic with weather interfering with most competitions. Poor weather conditions continued Wednesday Rogla IPC Alpine World Cup, with the first Giant Slalom run canceled because of high winds.

The World Championships includes over 270 skiers, guides, coaches and support personnel from 28 countries including Spain, France, Australia, Ukraine, Netherlands, Croatia, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Turkey, Belgium, Norway, Russia, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Slovakia, Czech Republic, United States, Austria, New Zealand, Sweden, Hungary, and South Africa..

The Spanish team includes blind skier Jon Santacana and his guide, and blind skier and his guide. Both vision-impaired skiers are scheduled to compete in the, , , Giant Slalom, and Slalom competitions. Also on the Spanish team are standing skier Úrsula Pueyo,  sit skier, and  sit skier Nathalie Carpanedo who qualified as a wildcard entry. Pueyo, Espallargas, and Carpanedo are all scheduled to compete in the Slalom and Giant Slalom competitions. Accompanying the team are to be coaches Javier Gutierrez, Jordi Carbonell, and Andres Gomez, medical staff including Pablo Marquez and Josep Barrachina, and technical staffer Josep Bort.

The United States team consists of Seattle, Washington-based vision-impaired skier Mark Bathum and his Colorado Springs-based guide Jessica Smith;, Utah-based vision-impaired skier and guide Rob Umstead; retired  and , Tennessee-based ; , New York-based Ralph Green; Colorado Springs-based ; , Alaska-based Andrew Kurka; , Vermont-based Stephen Lawler; retired  and , Colorado-based Jon Lujan; , New Mexico-based ; , Massachusetts-based Laurie Stephens; Park City, Utah-based Stephani Victor; , New Hampshire-based Tyler Walker; and retired  and , New Hampshire-based.