U.S. Paralympic Team Blogs

Light Through My Eyes

Tue Aug 31 18:45:00 -0400 2010

The most common, and complicated question I am asked is ... What Can You See? To be honest with you ... I really do not know what I can or cannot see. I am going blind to a disease that has no cure. Being told when you are 13 years old that YOU WILL go completely blind, defiantly puts a sort of doom… Read More

True Champions

Tue Jul 06 18:07:00 -0400 2010

All good things must come to an end, and we must move on. Move forward and grow from all that we have learned. Enjoy the victories, and get strength from our losses... but do not let them define you. You do not have to win, get a medal, or a globe to be a winner. If you work hard and be the best… Read More

Living the Life

Tue May 18 13:44:00 -0400 2010

Bettylynn was born on, December 20, 2006. At eight weeks of age she moved to Baker City, Oregon, to live with her puppy raisers, the Bothus family. The puppy raisers are so amazing.  They love these puppies, train them, give them a home, grow attached to them, and then have to let them go. … Read More

Team Vision4Gold in Vancouver

Fri Apr 16 11:17:00 -0400 2010

In this blog, alpine skier Danelle Umstead recounts her 2010 Paralympic Winter Games experience.       March 6, 2010 – Team Processing with Team USAWe arrived to Denver and started team processing immediately. We spent several hours trying on… Read More

Hello, World Cup

Mon Feb 01 17:47:00 -0500 2010

We packed up and headed to Europe for 3 weeks of ski racing. It was going to be tough being away from our son Brocton. He stayed in Boston with the Umstead family and his twin cousins. Brocton will definitely have a good time with them. We started the trip very rested, healthy, and strong. We… Read More

'Tis the season

Tue Dec 29 11:30:00 -0500 2009

The season is off to a good start. It was time to pack up again and head to Summit County, Colorado.  The U.S. Adaptive Ski Team (USAST) coaches put on a great camp at Copper Mountain for the athletes to train before the NorAm (North American) races. We had 10 days of training with giant… Read More

Counting down: Only 100 days to go!

Wed Dec 02 12:45:00 -0500 2009

100 days away..... The 2010 Paralympic Winter Games are right around the corner. It is time to put closure on last year and start fresh for this very important season. This is the time to focus, train hard, and be better than you ever thought you could be. We arrived in Colorado mid-October. Erik… Read More

How does that work?

Mon Nov 09 12:38:00 -0500 2009

Disabled (adaptive) ski racing has many amazing athletes with all different types of physical disabilities. Ski racing is usually an individual sport. When you go through the start gate... it is you, and only you. With a visually impaired ski racer, it is a team effort and each athlete has equal… Read More

Danelle Umstead Blog - There's no place like home

Mon Oct 12 18:35:00 -0400 2009

The hardest question that Rob and I get is... Where are you guys from? This is really difficult for us to answer. We have established a home base in many different places.  I would have to say our home is anywhere in the great outdoors. Taos, NM is where Rob and I met after a day of skiing at… Read More

Danelle Umstead's Blog - Visiting the OTC

Mon Sep 28 14:48:00 -0400 2009

We spent the rest of the summer in Hood River, OR. Multiple hours a day cross training for team Vision4Gold. Most of our time was spent in the gym, and tandem biking. The summer wrapped up at the end of August, we packed up our travel trailer and headed back to Park City, UT. After a week back in… Read More

Danelle Umstead Blog - Offseason? What Offseaon?

Mon Aug 31 15:32:00 -0400 2009

2009 was a stellar season for Team Vision4Gold, We trained with the coaches and other athletes from the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colorado. When the season was over we headed back to Park City, Utah for a couple of weeks. While in Park City, we received our official… Read More