As war rages at home, Israeli Winter Paralympian Sheina Vaspi will hit the slopes next week in Cortina — after skipping her first event since it is scheduled for Shabbat.

The Milano Cortina Paralympic Games kick off with Friday night’s opening ceremony, and Vaspi’s first event would have been the downhill on Saturday.

But Vaspi, 24, who grew up in a Chabad home in Yesud Hama’ala in northern Israel, does not compete on Shabbat, and will be missing the downhill event — unless weather conditions force it to be postponed.

Instead, Vaspi is slated to make her Cortina debut on Monday in the women’s Super-G standing event. She will then compete on Tuesday in the alpine combined and on Thursday in the giant slalom. She will again skip the slalom event next Saturday, March 14, unless it also happens to be rescheduled.

Vaspi is Israel’s first-ever and still only Winter Paralympian, returning to the Games next week four years after her debut in Beijing in 2022. In those games, Vaspi skied only in the giant slalom and was forced to skip the slalom when it was rescheduled from Sunday to Saturday due to expected high temperatures.

They have been a very tough four years........

© The Times of Israel