Netherlands at the 2014 Winter Paralympics
The Netherlands sent a delegation to compete at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, held between 7–16 March 2014. The Netherlands delegation consisted of seven competitors, all of which were competing in sports under the alpine skiing banner. Bibian Mentel won the nation's only medal at these Paralympics, a gold in women's snowboard cross. With one gold medal, the Netherlands ranked a joint 14th place on the medal table with Switzerland.
Background
The Netherlands have competed in every Summer Paralympics since the inaugural event in 1960. Since making their debut at the third Winter Paralympics in 1984, they have missed the winter edition of the Paralympics only once, in 2006. Before the Sochi Paralympics, the Netherlands had won 10 Winter Paralympic medals, all by one person, Marjorie van de Bunt. The delegation sent to these Paralympics consisted of seven athletes: three skiers and four snowboarders. The Chef de Mission for the Netherlands in Sochi was Andre Cats. Bibian Mentel was chosen as the Dutch flagbearer for the Parade of Nations during the opening ceremony. Anna Jochemsen was selected as the flagbearer for the closing ceremony.Disability classification
Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis. Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Events with "B" in the code are for athletes with visual impairment, codes LW1 to LW9 are for athletes who stand to compete and LW10 to LW12 are for athletes who compete sitting down. Alpine skiing events grouped athletes into separate competitions for sitting, standing and visually impaired athletes.Alpine skiing
Men
Kees-Jan van der Klooster was born in 1977, and broke his back in 2001, leaving him a paraplegic. He had previously represented the Netherlands in the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics. He competes in a sitting position, where he is classified as LW11. He competed in three events, however, he failed to complete any of them, falling in both the downhill and the super-G, recording three DNF's over his Paralympics.Bart Verbruggen was born in 1988. He is classified as LW9-1 and competes in a standing position. He entered the downhill and the Super-G. In the downhill, he finished with a time of one minute and thirty seconds. The race was competitive, and despite being only six seconds back from gold medal position, he finished 14th and last of all competitors to complete the race. In the super-G, he failed to finish the race.