Gold in Beijing for Utah’s snowboard Paralympian Brenna Huckaby

Brenna Huckaby, who just won gold in the Beijing 2022 Paralympics. Photo: International Paralympic Committee (IPC)

BEIJING — Brenna Huckaby won the gold medal in Banked Slalom in the Beijing 2022 Paralympics Friday. The Salt Lake City resident won the bronze medal days ago in the only other snowboard event at the Games, the Snowboardcross.

Huckaby, a two-time Paralympian is an above-the-knee (AK) amputee, a cancer survivor, a wife and a mother of two who went to high school in Salt Lake City while riding at Snowbird. That’s where she joined Team Utah riding the long, treed, gully runs which so organically mimick the Beijing Banked Slalom course. One athlete at a time goes down taking the fastest of two runs.

For Huckaby, who got her adaptive sports start at Park City’s National Ability Center, that was 1:17.28 with the second-place competitor crossing the finish line with a time of 1:17.38. China placed 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.