Chile at the 2014 Winter Paralympics

Chile first joined Paralympic competition at the 1992 Summer Paralympics, and participated at the Winter Paralympics for the first time at the 2002 Winter Paralympics. They have participated in every Summer and Winter Paralympics since their respective debuts, making Sochi their fourth appearance at a Winter Paralympics.^[1] The nation has never won a Winter Paralympics medal.^[2] The 2014 Winter Paralympics were held from 7–16 March 2014, in Sochi, Russia; 45 countries and 547 athletes took part in the multi-sport event.^[3] The Chilean delegation consisted of two alpine skiers, Jorge Migueles and Santiago Vega.^[2] Migueles was chosen as the Chilean flag-bearer for the parade of nations during the opening ceremony,^[4] and Vega was chosen to carry the flag for the closing ceremony.^[5]

Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five disability categories: amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, though there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; and Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, like dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.^[6][7] Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Events with "B" in the code are for athletes with visual impairment, codes LW1 to LW9 are for athletes who stand to compete and LW10 to LW12 are for athletes who compete sitting down.^[8] Alpine skiing events grouped athletes into separate competitions for sitting, standing and visually impaired athletes.^[9]