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ASSOCIATES A triple threat F lying down a ski hill at over 100 km per hour might sound intimidating to some, but for Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP tax lawyer Ian Balfour, it was a way of life. Born without the lower portion of his right forearm, he didn't let it stop him from reaching his goals as a world class athlete. Hav- ing competed in three Paralympic Games, holding the title of world champion for disabled ski racing for four years among numerous other wins, Balfour is now sharing his experiences as a mentor for young athletes preparing themselves for the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Balfour grew up in Pincher Creek, Alta., about 15 minutes from the local ski hill. Skiing runs in the family; both his par- ents are avid skiers. They had him on the slopes by the age of four, and eventually he got into racing. "They threw me into the ski-racing program — I think initially so that they could get off and ski by themselves," he jokes. 14 M ARCH 2009 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com Ian Balfour was a world champion skier who as a tax lawyer still mentors young paralympic athletes. BY JEFFRE Y H. WAUGH Most of the time he raced with able-bodied competitors, saying his disability wasn't much of an issue, apart from slow- ing him out of the gate. "Only having one arm, the only place that it really affects me is my start, because you explode out of the gate. And so, out of the start I was always a bit slower. But I like to think that I could catch up sometimes." During an able-bodied race, a coach from the provincial team of the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiing spotted Balfour. "I might have been 12 at that point," he says. He was quickly recruited for the team. While the program was fairly "bare bones," he says it gave him an in to the national squad. It didn't take him long to reach that goal; Balfour was named to the national disabled team by the age of 14. "I was a pretty junior member," he says, but that didn't hold him back. In 1994, he was put on the team for the Lilleham- mer, Norway Paralympic Winter Games. He placed 16th in