After the club - whose adaptive programme consistently puts athletes on the national team, such as Vancouver 2010 Paralympian Heath Calhoun (pictured) - struggled to find funds throughout December, the anonymous donor has changed the fortunes of the Colorado based organisation.

The donation also guarantees that the club will be able to host the national championships for adaptive programmes at Buttermilk Mountain in February and comes at a good time for the club following uncertainty over federal funding.

The club had been receiving between $250,000 (£150,000/€180,000) and $500,000 (£300,000/€365,000) in grant money from the Government each year, however these funds are reported to have ran out this year, leading to cutbacks at a time when athletes are training to be part of the US team travelling to Sochi for the Paralympics next year.

"We did an aggressive funding campaign for December, we made it through December and then just in the last two weeks we had the fortunate news," said the club's director of excellence Walt Evans.

"That's really a solution for us, it's not an end-all by any means, but it will get us over the hump and fund the whole programme.

"We're still chasing about $25,000 (£15,000/€18,000) to produce the way we want to.

"But we have training and competition covered for those athletes."

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