Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.

If you've been keeping up with the Winter Olympics, I have some good news for you. The games are not over yet.

The Winter Paralympics kick off in Milan on March 6th. So today,

we're going to zoom in to one winter Paralympic sport, Sled Hockey, or Para Ice Hockey. Here to make

us smart about it is Declan Farmer, the three-time gold medalist in sled hockey. We're catching

him before he heads to Milan. Declan, welcome to the show.

Hey, Kimberly. Thank you so much for having me on. Declan, thank you so much for making time for us

in between your practices for the Paralympics. I know you're getting ready to head over. For those

who aren't familiar with the sport, what is sled hockey?

Sled hockey is an adaptive version of typical stand-up ice hockey. So the biggest difference is in equipment. We are sitting in what's called a sled. So basically, you just have a

kind of a contraption that's on the ice. You still have two skate blades. You're just kind of sitting on top of it, and they're kind of mount into a metal frame, and then you have what's called like a bucket that just goes around like your hips and thighs and butt.

It's basically kind of like a cast form that just holds you tight to the rest of the sled.

And then instead of one stick, you have two sticks.

They're a bit shorter and they have ice picks on the bottom.

So think kind of cross-country skiing style for skating.

And then if you want to handle the puck or shoot, you slide your hands down to the butt end of the stick to do that.

So you're doing everything with your upper body.

It's still full contact. It's five on five with your upper body. It's still full contact.

It's five on five with a goalie. It's all the same rules as stand-up hockey just with the

equipment adaptations. When did you start playing sled hockey? I started when I was eight years

old. I used two prosthetics to two-leg prosthetics to walk. So I've, you know, since I was a kid. So I started when I was eight years old. I used two prosthetics to, two leg prosthetics to walk, so I've, you know, since I was a kid.

So I started pretty young. And, yeah, it was the first, like, a disabled sport I tried. And I just love the camaraderie of it.

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