At the Gorki Gorod resort, together with the ANO Center for AFK, Sports, and Tourism "Energy of Life," they launched a program for adaptive tourism for people with disabilities through alpine skiing.
Autonomous non-profit organization The "Energy of Life" Center for Adaptive Physical Culture, Sports, and Tourism provides a range of sports, fitness, and tourism services aimed at recreation, rehabilitation, and social adaptation for people with disabilities in Krasnaya Polyana and Sochi. According to the program's creators, adaptive motor recreation through alpine skiing provides a shift in the neuro-emotional focus to new environmental factors and is designed to address the following issues:
- optimization of the condition, restoration of physical and spiritual strength, health improvement and rehabilitation;
- getting pleasure and improving mood from doing physical exercise, which helps increase motivation;
- engaging students in communication and overcoming psychological complexes (insufficiency, alienation, etc.), adaptation and socialization in society;
- development and improvement, as well as self-education of spiritual strength and vitality;
- Providing active recreation and promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Alpine skiing lessons are conducted using a specially developed Russian method, using the patented Russian "Katyusha" verticalizers designed by K.Z. Ponomarev, and are led by professional instructors. The Center's instructors have over three years of experience working with people with disabilities on the ski slopes of Krasnaya Polyana.
Instructors and students of the Energy of Life Center can be identified on the ski slopes of the all-season mountain resort Gorki Gorod by their special yellow bibs with the Energy of Life Center logo.
On January 4, 2018, the first participants of the program became two children: Anton from St. Petersburg (10 years old, diagnosed with cerebral palsy) and Maria from Novosibirsk (6 years old, ASD).
The first lessons took place on the children's slope, accompanied by two instructors, at an altitude of +960 m. At the end of the lesson, the children began to perform their first independent skiing exercises (without support).
The AFKST "Energy of Life" center offers several programs for both children and adults with disabilities, as well as professional instructor guidance while skiing at the Gorki Gorod ski resort:
For more information on adaptive tourism programs and conditions, please contact: 8-928-449-55-25, srcenter@list.ru, or visit sochi360.ru.
Source: trn-news.ru