‘Rock Star of the Paralympics’ USA’s Patrick Halgren gets silver, Andrew Kurka bronze in Super-G at Milan Cortina

Patrick Halgren at the Milan Cortina Paralympics. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

Cortina, Italy — “What do you say to everyone calling you the Rock Star of the Paralympics?” reporters, including TownLift, asked USA’s Patrick Halgren after winning the silver medal in Super-G, “They are not wrong,” he replied.

His special brand of blissed-out bravado is celebrated throughout his state of Colorado, the national, and international para-alpine skiing community, as people lined up to congratulate the two-time Paralympian who lost his leg 10 years ago in a motorcycle accident. The removal of his “Easy-Rider”- designed red, white, and blue helmet revealed his long hair, which had been braided into three sections: red, white, and blue.

The Team USA media representatives hold their breath when he steps up to a microphone, all at once wondering what he says will be more frank, funny, or fantastical. The IOC/IPC media representatives don’t care either way, because they are well aware that, even though he got silver, Patrick Halgren is social media gold.

His Dad, who’s here with his Mom, was hit in an auto accident by a drunk driver and suffered a lifelong ankle injury before Patrick’s life-changing accident. Three years after that, Patrick’s identical twin brother Sven was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. Patrick’s face lights up more when he talks about his Sven than the silver medal; he uses the phrase for skiing fast off these knolls, instead of the colloquial ‘send it,’ ‘Svend it.” His parents have now been out of the States exactly three times, once 50 years ago for their honeymoon, once to pick up Svens’ body in New Zealand, and now, to watch Patrick win a medal in Italy at the Paralympic Games.

Despite the American flag he draped around himself, holding it in his teeth as he gripped his crutches, this was a very vicarious worldwide win-win. When he could hold the flag, outstretched behind him, it exposed his thick, gold chain and diamond cross necklaces, reflecting brightly against the Italian ski area snow. The three-sided Paralympic symbol, called the Agitos, represents the mind, body, and spirit, all of which are personified in Patrick Halgren today.

Sitting athlete Andrew Kurka isn’t trying to compete with Standing athlete Halgren on or off the course. An elder statesman, he’s more understated but never underestimated. The Alaskan got the bronze medal in the Super-G. In the finish area, he told TownLift and other reporters, “Today was a great race, and it was a good time, and we all did really well. Having the advantage of pushing fifth out of the start was really great for me, because I was able to know exactly what to do in a good portion of those sections.”

When he saw his wife after the Medals Ceremony, he put his medal around her neck.

Four-time Paralympic skier Chris Devlin Young is here in Cortina serving in his role as the Chair of the Para Sports Committee for U.S. Ski and Snowboard. In 2002, in Salt Lake City, he won a gold medal in super-G and a silver medal in downhill as a monoskier. His performance made him the first Paralympian in history to medal in two different disability classes. He followed that up with a silver in Torino in 2006 and a fourth place in Vancouver in 2010.

Reminiscing about the 2002 Salt Lake Paralympics, he told TownLift, “The Super-G, the race I won. I don’t remember at all, but I remember the start, yeah, and I remember the crush of energy coming into the finish line. It was just that I could feel like a wall of energy that I was skiing into before I heard the sound of the crowd.”

Another four-time Paralympian, Park City’s Rob Umstead, won three bronze medals as the Guide for his wife, Danelle Umstead, in the Women’s Visually Impaired category. They skied for the National Ability Center, and now Rob is the NAC Coach back home, coaching for his first Paralympics with Team USA. He told TownLift, “We have 11 National Ability Center athletes here, which is great.” When asked about transitioning from racer Guide to racer coach, he said that it was definitely different and definitely difficult to stand at the top of the course and not ski down it.

The Paralympic gold medal in the Standing Super-G category was won by Switzerland’s Robin Cuche. If that last name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the nephew of Didier Cuche, who won the gold in the 1998 Super-G Olympics.