(10 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hoodoo Ski Area, Oregon – 6 March 2025
1. Wide of Ukrainian veteran amputees "three track" skiing on one leg, with the support of hand-held outriggers, as they head to chairlift
2. Mid of Ukrainian veteran amputees "three track" skiing on one leg, with the support of hand-held outriggers, as they head to chairlift
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Pat Addabbo, executive director of Oregon Adaptive Sports:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"The group of Ukrainian veterans are learning to three track. And what that means is, they’re skiing on a single ski while holding two hand-held outriggers, so they’re literally leaving three tracks in the snow. The outriggers help them to balance and it helps them initiate and finish their turns, and it enables them to be independent on the mountain."
4. Mid of Ukrainian veteran amputees taking a break to drink water
5. Various close-ups of Ukrainian veteran amputees
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Oleksandr Shvachka, Ukrainian veteran amputee:
"It’s amazing emotion. It’s a new experience, and I’m so happy."
7. Mid of instructor teaching Ukrainian veteran amputees
8. Wide pan of Ukrainian veteran amputee "three track" skiing down the mountain on one leg using two hand-held outriggers
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristian Minai, Ukrainian ski instructor:
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"We want to do something new and special for our war veterans. We want to do three track skiing in Ukraine. That’s why we are here."
10. Wide tracking shot of Ukrainian veteran amputee "three track" skiing down the mountain on one leg using two hand-held outriggers
11. Mid of skis and outriggers
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristian Minai, Ukrainian ski instructor:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"Because of this, I hope that they will be back on their legs, they will come and go back to their lives, find some new interesting things and go back to normal life."
13. Wide of Ukrainian veteran amputee "three track" skiing on one leg, with the support of hand-held outriggers
STORYLINE:
A group of Ukrainian veteran amputees are spending two weeks in Oregon learning a form of adaptive skiing for people with one leg, with an organization that works to make sports more accessible to people with disabilities.
The Oregon city of Corvallis has been sister cities with Uzhhorod in western Ukraine for over 30 years, and its sister city association is hosting the five veterans — some of whom have been recovering in Uzhhorod’s rehabilitation hospital — as well as two Ukrainian ski coaches.
The goal is to help improve the veterans’ physical and mental health and teach the Ukrainian ski coaches how to use adaptive ski equipment, so that they can then pass along that knowledge back home to the war-torn country’s thousands of amputees and make the winter sport more inclusive.
"All adaptive sports are very helpful to people with disabilities. It reminds them that they can participate fully in life," said Carol Paulson, co-founder of the Corvallis Sister Cities Association.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Paulson taught adaptive skiing to Vietnam War veterans who had lost a limb. She saw how being active on the mountain improved their mood, and thought to offer the same experience to veterans of the war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians were learning to "three track" ski, which involves skiing on one leg and using two hand-held outriggers to help with balance and turning. Their outriggers resembled forearm crutches with short skis on the end.
"It’s a new experience, and I’m so happy," he said.
—
AP Video by Claire Rush
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