#para-skiing

Cristian Westemaier Ribera is a great, 18 year old paralympic athlete from Brazil. Despite his young age, he’s already holding the record of best Brazilian athlete in Winter Paralympic history!

Cristian was born in Cerejeiras, a small town in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. At birth, it became apparent that his umbilical cord had remained wrapped around his legs during pregnancy. This left him with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita(AMC), a congenital condition which caused severe joint contractures and stiffness in both his legs. It also left him virtually without any muscle power from his waist down.

While Cristian’s upper body has always been in excellent health, it didn't take long before the muscles in his legs became atrophied. This caused him to gradually lose more and more of the muscle tissue in his legs. While muscle atrophy greatly increases the risk of fractures and can lead to blood flow problems, Cristian underwent many surgeries as a child to correct some of the worst joint contractures and to increase the flexibility in his legs.

Cristian also spent lots of time at physical therapy during his childhood. This was something he really loved, while it involved lots of different sports and brought him into contact with swimming, athletics, capoeira, tennis, bocce and dancing. It soon turned out that Cristian was a gifted swimmer and that he had some tremendous talent for athletics.

Encouraged by his therapist, Cristian eventually started to compete in wheelchair track and field events and soon specialized himself in the field of wheelchair racing.

After watching the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, Cristian gained more and more interest in para-skiing. While this was difficult to practice close to home, he found an alternative in para roller-skiing. Supported by his parents and trainers (Leandro Ribela and Taylor Brian) Cristian eventually started travelling to all places possible to train in para-skiing.

In 2018, Cristian won both a bronze and silver medal at the 2018 World Cup in Vuokatti in Finland. That same year, Cristian qualified to compete in the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. Here, he finished 6’th in the men’s 15K race making him the best Brazilian athlete in the history of the Winter Paralympics!

His current ambition is win a medal at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, China.

If you’d like to know more about, you can visit out his Facebook page by clicking the link down below or you can check out his Instagram page right here!

Wesley Vinícius dos Santos is an amazing 23 year old wheelchair racer and paraskiier from Jundiaí, a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.

Wesley has been a wheelchair user for all his life because of spina bifida myelomeningocele. Myelomeningocele is a congenital condition in which there grows a malformation in the spine during pregnancy, causing damage to the spinal cord. This left Wesley completely paralyzed from his waist down for all his life and he never had any feeling whatsoever in his legs.

As in his own words, Wesley considered himself lucky that he never knew what it was like to walk, stand or use his legs in any way. He was a very sociable kid and always had lots of friends. The fact he had to use a wheelchair to get around never really bothered him, nor his surroundings.

Wesley had a very active and energetic personality and around the age 12, he started wheelchair racing. Ever since his first time on the track, he immediately loved it and by now, he gathered an impressive amount of medals and trophies in the sport!

Around the age of 18, Wesley was introduced to para-skiing by Cristian Westemaier Ribera, a good friend of his whom I featured earlier on in my blog. Wesley really got a kick out of skiing and now regularly trains on slopes all over the world with Cristian and with female athlete Aline Rocha!

Unfortunately, Wesley hasn't been selected for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo later this year, but he has a good chance of competing in Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China in 2022!

Missy Cowley is an amazing, 14 year old, huntress, blogger, influencer and amateur model from Salt Lake City, Utah.

She was born with spina bifida. This is a a congenital condition which left her paralyzed from the waist down and without any feeling in her lower limbs. This never prevented Missy from being completely awesome though! She feels like "anyone who is in a wheelchair can do anything that other people can do".

Missy has always been very active. She tried wheelchair racing, tennis, basketball, horseback riding, para-skiing, fishing and she loves to swim.

Nowadays, Missy's biggest passion is hunting though. She got acquainted with the sport thanks to her father, which is an avid hunter. Missy's first hunting experience was at “Wheelchairs in the Wild”, a hunting event in Utah for people with disabilities.

After just a bit of practice, Missy became really skillful with her rifle and she now is really agile in maneuvering her wheelchair through rough terrain.

If you'd like, you can pay a visit to Missy's Instagram page(where she shares stories and beautiful photos of her life) or to her hunting Instagram page, where she talks about her hunting adventures...