The Chinese para alpine skiing team are targeting a breakthrough performance at the coming Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games, team manager Wang Xiangping revealed in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

As one of the major sports at the Winter Paralympics, alpine skiing will include three classes of competitions for visually impaired, sitting and standing athletes in five events: downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom (super-G) and super combined at National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing.

The first gold medal of the 2022 Winter Paralympics will be from the women's downhill vision impaired competitions on Saturday.

The Chinese para alpine skiing team were established in 2016 and made their debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games with one athlete. Four years later, the team now have 22 athletes compete at home.

As one of the fastest sports at the Winter Paralympics, alpine skiing often witnesses athletes race at over 100 kilometers per hour on snow. "In downhill, athletes almost have no control of their bodies," Wang said. "Many of our team members switched from other sports to alpine skiing. The first thing they need to overcome is fear."

According to Wang, the team hired quality coaches from overseas after the 2018 Winter Paralympics to focus on conditioning. Their athletes spent about six hours every day practicing skiing and another two to three hours enhancing their stamina during the preparations for the 2022 Winter Paralympics. Though there were a lot of difficulties to overcome, the team saw remarkable progress.

"Our team improved a lot in confidence and unity," Wang said. "It already feels like winning a gold medal or achieving success to be able to participate in the Winter Paralympic Games at home."

"Each of our athletes cherishes this opportunity. We will give our best from the first race," Wang added.