Stephani Victor
Former film student and actress Stephani Victor is living her own improbable gold-medal script. Loading her car in 1995, she was pinned against her vehicle when an out-of-control car veered into her driveway. Both legs were amputated above the knee. Three years - and 11 reconstructive surgeries - later, she had her first lesson on a mono-ski. Since then, she's gone on to win four world championship and five World Cup titles. In Torino, she added another golden chapter, winning the slalom gold medal at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games.
Victor took the world by storm in 2009, capturing three IPC World Cup victories and three world championship titles. She also claimed a national championship title in the slalom. Victor's dominant results show she will be one of the top medal contenders in Vancouver.
Born in Iowa, Victor started skiing in Pennsylvania in the sixth grade after her family moved outside Pittsburgh. In 1999, promoting a role in a movie during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, she took her first ski lesson. "[The instructor] told me, 'There is no such thing as disabled skiing,'" Victor said. "'Whether you are blind, backwards, on one ski or three, we all have to use the same physics and biomechanics to make the ski turn and go down the hill.' It was music to my ears." After that first lesson, she became deeply committed to the sport. "I've been an able-bodied track and soccer athlete and no other sport fed my soul the way skiing does."
Major Achievements:
- 2010: Third place Downhill - World Cup, Sestriere, Italy
- 2009: Paralympic SportsWoman of the year
- 2009: Gold medal, slalom, giant slalom and super combined - IPC World Championships
- 2009: Gold medal, slalom - U.S. Adaptive Alpine Skiing National Championships
- 2007: Overall World Cup champion
- 2007: Slalom & giant slalom overall World Cup champion
- 2007: Gold medal, giant slalom and slalom - U.S. Adaptive Alpine Skiing National Championships
- 2006: Gold medal, slalom - Paralympic Winter Games, Torino, Italy
- 2006: World Cup slalom champion
- 2005: Gold medal, slalom - U.S. Adaptive Alpine Skiing National Championships
- 2004: Gold medal, slalom; silver medal, Super G; bronze medal, downhill - World Championships
- 2004: Slalom champion - World Cup
- 2003: Gold medal, super G and giant slalom - U.S. Adaptive Alpine Skiing National Championships
- 2002: Bronze medal, downhill - Paralympic Winter Games, Salt Lake City, Utah
- 2000: Gold medal, slalom - U.S. Adaptive Alpine Skiing National Championships
