Winter Paralympics: slushy snow and T-shirts as athletes feel the heat with temperatures pushed well above freezing

Cross-country skiers ploughed through slushy snow wearing T-shirts on day five of the Beijing Winter Paralympics on Wednesday as spring-like weather pushed temperatures well above freezing.

The warm spell caught some skiers off guard on the largely man-made snow at the Zhangjiakou cross-country event where six gold medals were up for grabs.

Athletes in the Olympics last month at the same venue had battled blizzard conditions and a brutal wind chill, with some events postponed because of the weather.

Norwegian cross-country skier Birgit Skarstein, who competes in the women’s sitting category, likened the weather to July in Norway as temperatures in the nearby Zhangjiakou city nudged a balmy 17 Celsius degrees (63 degrees Fahrenheit).

Up on the slopes temperatures were around 10 degrees cooler, but still well above freezing as the artificial snow began to melt.

“It was really sucky conditions out there, you could feel the skis being drawn into the ground,” she told AFP. “You pull and you feel like you’re stuck in glue,” said Skarstein, who raced in short sleeves.

“It was really slushy,” she said, adding at times she felt like her exhausted arms would fall off. “These kinds of conditions draw your energy out of the body.”