Park City Paralympian Saylor O’Brien skis into two 5th place finishes in Milan Cortina

Saylor O'Brien at the Paralympics. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

CORTINA, Italy — Saylor O’Brien might be skiing in her first Paralympics, but it’s not her first rodeo, as they say. The 22-year-old from Woodland, Utah, has been an elite para alpine ski racer since the age of 13.  

In these Milan Cortina Games, O’Brien is representing Team USA in no less than five sit-ski events: downhill, Super-G, Alpine combined, giant slalom, and slalom. 

At the 2023 World Para Ski Championships, O’Brien earned two bronze medals, one in Super-G and one in Alpine combined. Then in the 2024–25 season, she was awarded the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Adaptive Athlete of the Year.

She’s been on the National Ability Center’s Competitive Team before, during, and after attending high school at the Picabo Street Academy, and has simultaneously been a member of Sisters in Sports.

“In Sisters in Sports I’ve gained a group of female friends that I had never had in any other aspect of my life,” O’Brien said in the finish area of the Super-G.  “Additionally, the National Ability Center is the most welcoming, accepting, supportive, and fun place, and I feel privileged to be a part of the organization.”

Her mom and dad, Audrey and Nate, are here in Italy watching their daughter ski. Living in Northern Utah since before O’Brien was born, they briefly moved to Northern California where specialized surgical services were most readily available upon the diagnosis of O’Brien’s spina bifida, only to return shortly thereafter, residing in Woodland. Parkites know and love them not only personally but professionally as well through Nate’s general contracting work and Audrey’s company The Breathing Co., which specializes in meditative and medical breathwork. Those are learned skills O’Brien put to good work in between her Super-G run and her slalom run to recenter herself on Tuesday.  

A couple days prior, she posted her best result so far in these Paralympics with a fifth place in the downhill. Her sport class is LW12-1, which translates to a calculated factor of 0.8831.

The following day, in the Super-G, O’Brien again finished in fifth place. The next day, after racing into seventh place in the morning event of the Alpine combined’s Super-G, she wasn’t able to cross the finish line for the afternoon’s slalom, the same result as multiple athletes as the spring-time snow softened.

O’Brien is scheduled to ski in the last two events of Para Alpine along with her talented Team USA women alpine teammates, Anna Soens, Audrey Crowley, Allie Johnson, Kelsey O’Driscoll, and Meg Gustafson.

Gustafson is the youngest Paralympian at Milan Cortina at the age of 16, just making the low limit. She began an alpine ski racer in the Midwest before beginning to have issues with her vision a few years ago, which has progressed to the level of now being classified as an athlete with a visual impairment at the Paralympic Games. Her guide is her older brother, Spencer, who is also a skier. The family, who has since moved to Colorado, has all traveled to Italy and to cheer them on. That said, they know, as all spectators know, that literally cheering on VI athletes at the Paras is forbidden. Crowd silence is a necessity as the guides use audio cues, verbal and/or via an in-helmet speaker/headphone system, to communicate. 

Gustafson is also a member of Sisters In Sports.

Passing the proverbial torch to the Gustafsons are a Park City pair who practically wrote the book on successful systems of Paralympic Alpine VI comms, Gustafson’s coach and retired guide, National Ability Center/Team USA Coach Rob Umstead along with his wife, Danelle. Together they won three Visually Impaired Paralympic alpine medals.

It’s a family affair for them as well here in Milan Cortina. Brockton, their son, has excused absences from the Park City High School to attend his third Paralympics as a supportive son and a Visual Assistant, before he graduates in June. Danelle can hardly walk through a crowd here without being stopped by friends, fans, former teammates, or folks thankful for the nonprofit she’s founded and runs, Sisters in Sports. Her other two founders, Oksana Masters, and Kendall Gretsch are simultaneously busy competing at the Milan Cortina Para cross country and biathlon venues, racking up medals left and right for Team USA.

“Our very first SIS athlete, Kate Delson, won a silver medal in Para snowboard yesterday. We’re so proud of her,” Danelle told TownLift. “Meg is part of our our foundation. We support her and Spencer holistically and financially through the beginning of her career so far, she’s showing up and learning what it’s like, and she’s rippin’ it out there on the snow.” Asked about how her experience is at these Paralympics without skis on her feet, Danelle said, “It feels great, just being here raising awareness for the Sisters in Sports Foundation. I’m proud of my husband’s coaching, it’s fun to have our son in Italy, and mostly to support all the six women and girls that SIS has over here at the Games. I’m rooting for every one of them. Go USA!”

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All photos: TownLift // Michele Roepke