USA Water Ski Releases Information on Disabled Nationals

The 24th Disabled Water Ski National Championships will be held Oct. 12-16 at Skyview Lake in Harmony, N.C.

The tournament will offer slalom, tricks and jumping events for vision impaired individuals (blind or partially sighted), multiplegics (paraplegics and quadriplegics), leg amputees (above and below knee), arm amputees, and athletes with both arm and leg disabilities.

The results of the Nationals will be used to select the members of the 2017 U.S. Disabled Water Ski Team, which will compete in the 2017 Disabled Water Ski World Championships, which will take place April 27-30 at Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia. Team selections will be announced at the tournament's awards banquet on Sunday evening, Oct. 16. The U.S. Disabled Water Ski Team has won the previous four world championships and will attempt to be the first team in history to win five consecutive world titles.? 

Organizers of the Nationals also are expecting as many as 10 skiers representing Canada and Australia to be skiing in the tournament this year. In order to accommodate these skiers, a USA vs. the World – Disabled Water Ski Challenge will take place. In short, all foreign skiers will be grouped into the World Team and all USA skiers will be grouped into the USA team. The top-four scores from each team in each event will be combined to determine the winning team.

The Skier Packet for the 2016 Disabled Water Ski National Championships is now available to view and download. To download the packet, click here (PDF). The competition will include more than 30 disabled water ski athletes from across the United States. Athletes interested in competing are encouraged to enter via online registration by clicking here. The entry deadline is 5 p.m. (EDT) on Friday, Sept. 23.