Classic Ravi Style: The 8th Grade Life Motto That Carried a 2x Paralympian to Milano Cortina
I caught up with Ravi Drugan after run 2 of his men's sitting slalom event on the final day of alpine competition at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.
"Today, I didn't have the race I was hoping for. The first run was rough conditions for sure. Second run, the snow got a little more forgiving but I just skied it classic Ravi style. Not necessarily the fastest, but I can definitely get down anything and have fun with it."
That last line. “Classic Ravi style.” It's the whole story.
There's a version of the athlete mindset conversation that sounds like this: control the controllables. Lock in your routine. Execute the process.
What Drugan has figured out, across seven years on Team USA's para alpine squad and two Paralympic Games, is that the only non-negotiable is staying loose.
"You gotta be flexible being a sit skier, being adaptive, and in the disabled community. Especially in traveling the world on the national team. I always say the harder it is, the better the story at the end and the better the adventure."
It sounds almost too casual. Traveling the world as a Paralympic sit-skier, Drugan has turned adaptability into his competitive identity. But his "better the story" mentality didn't start on a race course. It actually began in 8th grade, when his teacher asked the class to write down what they wanted to be when they grew up.
His classmates wrote doctor, lawyer, mother. Drugan reflects, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I always tried to stay open to possibilities. I was in 8th grade!”
So he wrote something that had nothing to do with a job.
"Live life to the fullest, enjoy every moment, and have no regrets. And if you do all those things it doesn't matter what you do. Or what you thought you would do. I never thought I'd be a ski racer. Let alone a 2x Paralympian and 7-year national team skier."
He was 13 when he wrote that. Three days before his 15th birthday, he was hit by a train and lost both legs. A few years after that, through Oregon Adaptive Sports, he found his way onto a mountain for the first time and didn't stop skiing until the lifts closed. Then came World Cup podiums in para snowboarding. Then alpine. Then Beijing. Then Milano Cortina.
Today wasn't his race. But Ravi Drugan competed with joy in front of a packed crowd of spectators at the storied Tofane Alpine Skiing Center, had fun doing it, and added one more chapter to his athletic career.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich, and I am on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to create the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Ravi Drugan is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
