Roundup: Brittany Chadbourne Continues To Climb, Dani Aravich Races Through The Alps And More
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by Alex Abrams
Every other week we scour the web for the latest going on in the world of U.S. Para Nordic skiing. Here’s what you missed!
Promising sit skier Brittany Chadbourne recently competed at the IFSC Para Climbing World Championships in Seoul, giving her the opportunity to continue climbing.
Chadbourne decided to try Para Nordic skiing following a climbing accident in November of 2022 that left her paralyzed from the belly button down. She has trained with U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing in the hopes of someday qualifying for the Winter Paralympics.
Chadbourne has also gotten back into climbing since her accident. She was among 50 American athletes who traveled to Seoul to compete at the world championships, where she finished in 10th place in her classification.
“It wasn’t necessarily the performance that I hoped for and trained for, but I am incredibly grateful to wrap up this climbing competition season at the World Championships in Seoul, and incredibly grateful for the support and community @sistersinsports that made it possible for me to travel there,” Chadbourne wrote on Instagram.
Sisters in Sports is a nonprofit organization focused on creating a community of women and girls with disabilities. Paralympic gold medalists Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch, who are teammates on the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing national team, are among the organization’s co-founders.
Chadbourne admitted it was challenging competing with men at the world championships, but she’s already looking forward to next season.
“Every competition feeds my desire to be stronger and climb harder,” Chadbourne wrote on Instagram. “I look forward to continued learning and growth in this off-season.”
Standing skier Dani Aravich has stayed in shape this offseason by competing in trail running, as she has done in the past.
In late August, the two-time Paralympian took part in this year’s HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc, a 15-kilometer trail running race through the Italian Alps. The race included 1,200 meters of elevation gain.
Aravich, who was a cross-country runner in college, finished the race in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 38 seconds to tie for 155th place out of more than 1,200 athletes. She competed on a team with other adaptive athletes.
Aravich made her Paralympic debut as a sprinter at the 2020 Paralympic Games Tokyo before stepping away from track and field to focus on Nordic skiing.
U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing recognized World Smile Day on Oct. 3 by sharing photographs of several of its national and development team members smiling.
The Instagram post included three-time Paralympic medalist Sydney Peterson smiling while hugging another skier at last year’s FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway.
In another photo, Jake Adicoff, a four-time Paralympic medalist as a visually impaired skier, smiles as he stands next to one of his personal guides at a world cup event in Val di Fiemme, Italy, this past winter.
Val di Fiemme will host the cross-country skiing events during the Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026
Oksana Masters recently showed that her prosthetic legs can be used for more than simply walking.
Masters, the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian of all time, shared on Instagram that she can set her coffee mug on the bottom of her prosthetic leg like it’s a coffee table.
“Stretch, lift, sip, repeat,” Masters wrote on Instagram. “Prosthetic hacks nobody tells you about.”
Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USParaNordic.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
