The, the seventh Paralympic Winter Games, were held alongside the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan from 5 to 14 March 1998. They were the first Paralympic Winter Games to be held in Asia. 571 athletes competed in Nagano; as 2022 it remains the highest number of athletes competing at any Winter Paralympics.

Sports

The games consisted of 122 events in five sports: alpine skiing, ice sledge hockey, ice sledge racing, and Nordic skiing. The sport of Nordic skiing comprised two disciplines, the biathlon and cross-country skiing.

Venues

In total seven venues were used at the 1998 Winter Olympics around four cities and towns.

Nagano City

Hakuba

Nozawaonsen

Yamanouchi

Medal table

The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation (Japan) is highlighted.

Participants

Thirty-one National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) entered athletes at the 1998 Winter Paralympics. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC.

Mascot

The 1998 Winter Paralympics Mascot was Parabbit. Parabbit is a white rabbit with one green and one red ear. Parabbit was chosen to complement the logo of the 1998 Winter Paralympics. It was created by Sadahiko Kojima. A nationwide competition was held among students to decide on the name, which drew 10,057 entries suggesting 3,408 different names.

Opening ceremony

The theme of the Opening Ceremony was Hope, and inspired by a painting by George Frederic Watts. The theme also signifies it was the first Winter Paralympics held in Asia and the last Paralympics of the 20th century.