The brightly coloured red and white uniforms of the Russian Alpine Paralympic team have been a familiar sight around Kimberley the past couple of weeks, jogging, taking in a few Dynamiter games and of course, on the ski slopes.

The team has been in town since February 20, training for the upcoming Paralympic Games, which begin at the end of next week.

And having a team like this in town is exactly what the City of Kimberley was hoping for when they began building the athletes training centre. The conference centre/training centre currently under construction at the ski hill is only the most visible part of the training centre. There have also been improvements to facilities in Kimberley, including a dedicated training run at the Kimberley Alpine Resort, that the Russian team has been using.

The Kimberley Alpine Training Centre, operated by Steve Bova’s disabled skiing group, offers everything a team needs for training, with over 10km of netting, drills, bits, radios, high quality timing equipment and transportation if needed.

In other words, all the logistics are taken care of and all the team needs to do is ski.

And that’s what the Russian team has been doing, arriving at Kimberley Alpine Resort every morning at 9 a.m., when the lift opens. By then they’ve usually been out for a jog and are ready to roll.

They’ve been enjoying themselves in Kimberley, says Slava, one of the athletes who speaks some English.

“We’ve had good training,” he said. “Kimberley is a very nice place. It feels like home.”

More importantly, the athletes have been impressed with conditions.

The Resort’s runs have been holding up well throughout this dry winter and have conditions perfect for race training.

“Conditions are great,” Bova said. “It’s hard and fast and icy, just what racers want.”

“Good, high quality snow,” Slava said.

The Russian team has high hopes for these Paralympics, having won the most medals in Turino in 2006.