Richard Burt is a British former Paralympic skier who won medals at the

1992 Winter Paralympics The 1992 Winter Paralympics (french: Jeux paralympiques d'hiver de 1992) were the fifth Winter Paralympics. They were the first Winter Paralympics to be celebrated with the International Olympic Committee cooperation. They were also the first ...

and

1994 Winter Paralympics The 1994 Winter Paralympics ( no, Paralympiske vinterleker 1994; nn, Paralympiske vinterleikane 1994), the sixth Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Lillehammer, Norway, from 10 to 19 March 1994. These Games marked the second time the Paraly ...

Paralympics

Burt's first appearance at the

Winter Paralympics The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. The event includes athletes with mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. Th ...

was during the 1992 Games held in Tignes and Albertville, France. He competed in the

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

and super-G events in the B3 classification. Burt competed in the B3 classification for visually impaired athletes. In the super-G Burt won a bronze medal, finishing behind

Bruno Oberhammer Bruno Oberhammer (born 17 October 1955) is an Italian para-alpine skier. Oberhammer competed at the Winter Paralympics in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1998 and, in total, he won three gold medals, five silver medals and four bronze medals. Biogr ...

of Italy and the United States' Brian Santos. In the giant slalom Burt recorded a time less than half a second quicker than Oberhammer to win the silver medal, the gold was again won by Santos. At the

, held in

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

, Norway, Burt competed in the

downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

and slalom events as well as the super-G and giant slalom. The gold medals in all four events went to Brian Santos and all four silvers were won by Bruno Oberhammer. Burt won two bronze medals, in the giant slalom and super-G, but failed to finish his other events. Prior to the

1998 Winter Paralympics The , the seventh Paralympic Winter Games, were held alongside the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan from 5 to 14 March 1998. They were the first Paralympic Winter Games to be held outside Europe. 571 athletes competed in Nagano; as 2022 it remain ...

in Nagano, Japan, Burt, and other members of the British team, experienced difficulties in obtaining funding for their training. In 1996

UK Sport UK Sport is the government agency responsible for investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the United Kingdom. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. It was created ...

, which replaced the Sports Council of Great Britain, became responsible for distributing National Lottery grant money. A delay in the arrival of lottery funding meant athletes such as Burt were forced to bridge the gap using their own savings. Eventually Burt received around £6000 of funding only a few months before the start of the Games. Competing in his third and final Paralympics Burt contested four events in Nagano, achieving a best result of fifth place in both the downhill and slalom.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burt, Richard Living people Year of birth missing (living people) British male alpine skiers Paralympic alpine skiers of Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic medalists in alpine skiing Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Paralympics Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Paralympics Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 1992 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Paralympics