Ruslan Reiter

Aviation, building and flying model aeroplanes, plane spotting. (teamusa.org, 05 Jul 2019; teamusa.org, 16 Oct 2020)

Competing at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. (centralmaine.com, 21 Mar 2018)

His friend Zach Holman. (Athlete, 29 Mar 2018)

He won the Wow Factor award at the 2017 Varsity Maine Awards in the United States of America. (pressherald.com, 21 May 2017)

He has competed in both Para biathlon and Para cross-country skiing at the Paralympic Winter Games. (centralmaine.com, 21 Mar 2018)

He was born with an underdeveloped right arm. (Athlete, 29 Mar 2018; pressherald.com, 21 May 2017)

FROM RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES
He was adopted from an orphanage in Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation, by his US parents. Every day his mother Annie would visit an older orphan called Tonia, whom she had arranged to adopt, and he would always wave at Annie and show her his favourite toys, so she decided to adopt them both. "I don't really remember a whole lot about Russia. Very vague memories, not strong ones." (centralmaine.com, 28 Jan 2017)

FLYING ACROSS THE SNOW
He has had an interest in aeroplanes since childhood, and studied aviation at Montana State University. He finds his hobby has similarities to Para cross-country skiing. "In both, being organised and prepared is very important. You get prepared for a race by doing your pre-race routine the day before. You do your course review and then set a plan for how you're going to approach warm-ups and the race. When you get ready to do a flight, you do the same thing. The day before you look at the weather, get yourself prepared to fly and to fly the route safely. You basically brief your flight just like [how] in Nordic you brief yourself on the course." (teamusa.org, 16 Oct 2020)