Tom Snowboarding (1)

The Paralympic Winter Games are almost here! We couldn’t wait for the summer Paralympics to start last year, and now we’re gearing up to watch action-packed winter sports from Beijing, March 4-13.

There are many different classifications for athletes across the spectrum of winter sports, including options for those with visual impairments, paralysis and lower limb differences. But most sports that are open to athletes with upper limb difference, including swimming, volleyball and triathlon, take place in the summer. For the 2022 Winter Paralympics, only one sport is currently available for those with an upper limb difference:

Snowboarding.

Luckily, snowboarding really is one of the coolest sports, so if upper limb different athletes only get one in the winter (for now), this one is pretty rockin’.

You can catch the para snowboarding action on March 5-6 and 11-12.

Our patient Tom Seibert, pictured at the top of this article, is an avid snowboarder.

He uses his activity-specific terminal device to hold his GoPro. The myoelectric multi-articulating hand that he uses on a daily basis would not be able to handle the extreme cold and wetness.

GOPR1116

Pro snowboarder Kiana Clay is a Paralympic hopeful. While you won’t be seeing her at this year’s Paralympic games, we’re hopeful that her sport/classification female snowboarders with upper limb disabilities will be included at the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Italy. Sadly, there were not enough competitors with Kiana’s classification for it to be included in the 2022 games. The New York Times recently did a feature on this world-ranked athlete’s passion for competitive snowboarding.

Would you like to participate in more sports and maybe one day take the world stage with Clay and her fellow athletes? If you feel that not having an activity-specific prosthesis is part of what is holding you back from your dreams, then let us help. Our prosthetists have worked with Paralympians to create activity-specific devices that they rely on for training and competition and our clinical therapy specialists have worked with those patients to help them learn how to best use their prosthesis.

Do you have any suggestions about specific athletes, teams or sports we should be watching during this year’s Paralympics? Please comment below. Or feel free to contact us. We’re looking forward to March 4 and we hope you’re with us!

For more information, see related Arm Dynamics articles here:

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