The 2015 Championships, the seventh edition of the competition, will be organised by Alpine Canada and follow a successful 2011-2012 World Cup final event at the same resort, as well as the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics, which IPC President Sir Philip Craven described as the best Winter Games ever.

"I am proud to announce Invermere as the host city for the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships following the great Paralympic Winter Games that Canada put on nearly three years ago and last year's World Cup final," Xavier Gonzalez, IPC chief executive, said.

"I am delighted to see winter Parasport flourishing in Canada, and this will bring it to another level outside of the Paralympic Games."

Invermere is expected to welcome 120 athletes to the Championships in two years' time, which is due to run from February 24 until March 4, and will be one of several major Parasport competitions Canada hosts in the next few years, with the nation also set to hold some IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup events.


Home hope Alexandra Starker, who secured three bronze medals in La Molina, welcomed the announcement and said she is excited by the prospect of winning medals on home snow.

"I'm really looking forward to the championships, as the slopes of British Columbia are where I grew up skiing," she explained.

Her words were echoed by Canadian Paralympic champion Viviane Forest, who added: "It's always an honour to have a major championships in your home country, and hopefully we can attract lots of people to come and cheer for us.

"The home support is always huge for athletes.

"I remember in Vancouver just to hear the home crowd and see people so into it was amazing."

Alpine skiing proved to be the most popular sport for viewers at Vancouver 2010, attracting a television audience of more than 690 million to lay a solid foundation for a successful Invermere 2015 event in terms of media coverage.

This year's World Championships in Spain drew 118 athletes from 29 countries, who competed across six different disciplines.

The IPC Alpine Skiing Sport Technical Committee has brought hundreds of races to the competition schedule in recent years to build up the sport to a truly elite level.

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