I was 17 years old and skiing the summer terrain parks at Blackcomb back in 2000. After hitting a few straight airs on a large table, I threw a backflip. But having my weight farther back on takeoff sent me out past the landing ramp. I over-rotated and hit the flats on my upper back/neck, fracturing my C7 vertebrae and sustaining a SCI as well as a broken femur.

I’m am a wheelchair rugby athlete and competed in 3 Paralympics and brought home 3 Paralympic medals (including a gold in Beijing). After the 2012 games, I “retired” to do a self-supported, handcycle/bicycle expedition with my then fiancé, now wife, from our home in Portland down to Ushuaia, Argentina. We called it The Long Road South In the end, we covered over 10,000 miles, including 6,500 miles of pedaling through eight countries. I have traveled to Altiplano in Bolivia and Aconcagua National Park in Argentina. I went back to rugby for the ’16 games, but am now retired for real and currently working as an editor for New Mobility magazine, a national lifestyle magazine for active wheelchair users.