The Sochi Winter Paralympic Games promised from the start to be a different experience. It has certainly lived up to that.
Located on the edge of the Black Sea, the summer resort was an unusual pick and the timing of early March brought warnings of poor snow conditions in the nearby western Caucasus mountains.
Lack of snowfall made for a bizarre sight on the competition ski slopes, which were made up of stockpiled snow and surrounded by barren ground and hibernating trees.
Officials talked about using an unspecified amount of chemicals on the soft snow to firm it up, but even that could not withstand the mid-morning warmth, which at times had people walking around in short-sleeved shirts. The result was countless complaints from skiers and seemingly as many crashes, some of them horrific, with the emergency medical helicopter a regular visitor to the slopes to transport injured skiers to hospital.
Half the entrants did not finish the speed events of downhill and Super-G, while the sit-skiers, those with lower body impairments who travel up to 130 kilometres an hour in contraptions that basically comprise a seat attached to a single ski by a motorbike shock absorber, were particularly susceptible as their races were held after the other classifications.
A cold snap arrived in the mountains mid-way through the schedule, with heavy snow falling for one day. Ironically, that in itself brought problems, with poor visibility forcing the rejigging of the men's super-combined and the speed component of the Super-G postponed for three days.
While the lead-up to the Olympic Games last month was dominated by protests against Russia's anti-gay laws and the culling of thousands of unfortunate cats and dogs, for the Paralympics, it was all about Russia's intervention in the Crimea peninsula, just 500 kilometres to the north-west of Sochi.
Britain, France and the United States were among those nations that withdrew official delegations from the opening ceremony. Speculation about whether the Ukrainian team would turn up was answered in a remarkably powerful and passionate press conference where Ukrainian representatives pleaded with Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace. The team declared it would remain and compete to send a message to the world.
But in general the Games were well run with security impressive tight - the road leading to the ski runs from the nearby village was dotted with military posts - and the people friendly and helpful.
Paralympic sport is a hard sell, particularly winter sports within Australia's summer culture. Much of the general public regards it as human interest rather than elite sport.
Part of the problem is that it is hard to truly appreciate the achievement of winter or summer Paralympic athletes. How can you fully convey the sight of skiers without legs, arms, the use of the lower bodies or vision skiing at well over 100 kilometres an hour? Or appreciate the full impact of a collision in the brutal worlds of ice-sledge hockey and wheel-chair rugby ?
The best way is to watch it in person - and that will never be possible for most.
The Paralympic movement received a massive boost after the 2012 London Games following impressive results by the Australian team. The winter team, which is limited to alpine skiers and snowboarders, has not enjoyed the same success.
It has been a disappointing campaign going into the final event, the women's giant slalom, only one medal had been won, a bronze to Toby Kane in the super-combined and the impact of the death of Australian para-snowboarder Matthew Robinson last month cannot be underestimated.
The phrase ''that's ski racing'' has been trotted out repeatedly to explain crashes, missed gates, injuries and lack of medals, but it does not explain the circumstances that led to the disqualification of Melissa Perrine in the super-combined because she wore an illegal visor on her helmet, with team officials admitting to a "mindnumbingly dumb mistake''.
The Australian Paralympic Committee launched a campaign last month to ask for donations to help close a $200,000 shortfall in funding for the Sochi campaign. It maintains it is committed to the winter program. But it will need to find the next generation of medal contenders quickly - and perhaps find partnerships that will fund the start-up of further sports that could appeal to Australians such as ice-sledge hockey, for the winter program to hitch a ride on the coat-tails of the London momentum.
