Cato Zahl Pedersen is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 skier and multiple Paralympic

Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...

 gold medal winner. He has won a total of fourteen medals (thirteen gold, one silver) at the Paralympic Games, in both Winter and Summer Paralympics. He has no arms, having lost both in a childhood accident.

He competed in track and field athletics at the 1980

1980 Summer Paralympics

The 1980 Summer Paralympics were the sixth Paralympic Games. They were held in Papendal, close to the host city of Arnhem, Netherlands, from June 21 to 30, 1980.- Sports :...

 and 1984 Summer Paralympics

1984 Summer Paralympics

The 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in two separate locations, Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom and in the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, United States of America The 1984 Summer Paralympics were the...

, winning six gold medals. He took part in the Summer Games again in 2000, this time in sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

, but did not medal. At the Winter Paralympics, he competed in alpine skiing

Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...

 four times, in 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1994. At the 1980 and 1984 Winter Games he also took part in cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

, winning one gold in 1980.

Pedersen took the athletes' oath on behalf of all competitors at the 1994 Winter Paralympics

1994 Winter Paralympics

The 1994 Winter Paralympics, the sixth Winter Paralympics, were held in Lillehammer, Norway, from 10–19 March 1994. These Games marked the first time the Paralympic Winter Games were held in the same location as the Winter Olympics, a tradition that has continued through an agreement of cooperation...

 in Lillehammer

Lillehammer

is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...

.

In 1994/1995, Pedersen took part in a successful four-person Norwegian skiing expedition to the South Pole

South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...

. He carried his sledge with a prosthetic right arm.