Meet the Texans competing in the Winter Paralympics 2022 Games in Beijing
On Friday, 67 American Paralympic athletes started competing in snow and ice sports at the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games. Four of them call Texas home.
The athletes will be in Beijing competing in 78 events across six sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, snowboarding, para ice hockey and wheelchair curling. The games run until March 13.
Learn more about the Team USA athletes from the Lone Star State competing in the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games.
1. Danelle Umstead, Plano
“Imagine what it’s like to ski down mountains at 70 miles per hour,” Danelle Umstead, 50, says on her website. “Now imagine what it’s like to do that blind. This is what I do. And most people think that is … impossible.”
At 13 years old, Umstead was diagnosed with an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, an eye condition that causes total blindness. She later discovered she also has multiple sclerosis.
In 2000, Umstead’s father introduced her to adaptive skiing, and she immediately fell in love with the sport. Since then, Umstead has won three Paralympic Winter Games bronze medals. She was also the first blind contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2018.
The alpine skiier mentors junior athletes with physical disabilities and is a motivational speaker.
2. Jen Lee, San Antonio
Jen Lee, 35, was introduced to sled hockey by “Operation Comfort,” an organization dedicated to assisting injured U.S. service personnel at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Lee, an Army veteran, had his left leg amputated above the knee after injuring it in a motorcycle accident in 2009. A lifelong athlete, Lee later graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Sport Management.
This is his third Winter Paralympic Games, having received gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 games.
3. Josh Sweeney, Live Oak
As a Marine Corps sergeant, Josh Sweeney lost both his legs in combat. While being rehabilitated, the Purple Heart recipient was immediately drawn to sled hockey, a game he had played throughout high school.
The 34-year-old went on to play with the San Antonio Rampage, a club sled hockey team made up entirely of injured military athletes, starting in 2010. And he was on the Dallas Stars club team in 2012, helping them earn the 2012 USA Hockey Sled Classic title. Sweeney served as tri-captain of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team for the 2013 season.
This is Sweeney’s second Winter Games. His first, when he won a gold medal, was in 2014.
4. Michael Spivey, Abilene
Abilene native Michael Spivey, 41, was introduced to para snowboarding during rehabilitation after he lost his left arm below the elbow during his second deployment as a Marine Corps sergeant in 2010.
The snowboarder last competed in the Games in 2018.
