The World Competes

Olympic planners hope to make the luge track safer for Sochi in 2014.

Alexi Salamone was born in Russia with legs that were deformed due to the Chernobyl disaster. He went on this year to win sledge hockey gold.

Leftover medical supplies from the Olympics are being sent to Haiti.

The fourth Russian Olympic official resigned on Tuesday. How will the Russians fare in 2012? Will it be a successful Olympics?

The United States won a gold medal against Japan in Paralympic sledge hockey. Canada placed fourth, just off the medal stand.

Comedians like to make jokes about the biathlon… if they knew that blind people were in the Paralympic biathlon, they might have a field day.

Alana Nichols won the first gold medal for the United States in the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics. She also has a gold medal from the Summer Paralympics.

Rick Hansen was the Vancouver 2010 torch bearer at the opening ceremonies in a wheelchair. He is also a gold medalist, has a song written about him, and will be the subject of an upcoming movie.

Adaptive skiing allows disabled athletes to compete in the Paralympics, whether they are blind, can’t stand, or have a locomotive disability.

The 2006 Paralympics were the first Paralympics to be broadcast on the Internet. Russia had the highest medal count. There were no doping violations.