From Competitor to Contender: The Mindset of Para Alpine Ski Racer Mikey O’Hearn
Mikey O’Hearn was told he’d never walk. He just made his Paralympic debut in Milano Cortina. The rest, he says, is just getting started.
"My parents were told I would not live or survive birth, and then it was that I would never walk. And so I kind of defied everything that disability said I would be. But it wasn't just about living a normal life. I wanted to be exceptional. I wanted to be a trailblazer.”
He was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a rare congenital disorder that left his joints contracted throughout his body, his muscles either missing or stiffened, his ankles, wrists, and elbows pulled into angles that doctors said were incompatible with the life he now leads.
The story of how he got to a Paralympic start gate begins, surprisingly, at age three. His parents, searching for an outlet for their child, enrolled him in an adaptive ski program in upstate New York.
"Ski boots are designed so stiff that they can hold your body up," he explains, "So I started skiing independently before I ever walked independently."
Skiing As Freedom
"It allowed me to be free, it allowed me to be independent before independence was even an option for me. My breaks between surgical rooms and operations was skiing on the weekends. I now call it anatomical freedom…which I could never say back then because I was 3 to 8…but that's what it is. It's freedom. It might sound obvious for an able-bodied person, but you don't have that as a disabled child."
O’Hearn immediately fell in love with skiing and progressed through adaptive programs. Eventually, he was recruited by the National Ability Center out of Park City. He was competitive. He was committed. But for a while, he was honest with himself about where he stood.
"I used to show up at these races and compete, but I was not a contender. So much of the sport, of course, is physical — it’s becoming swift, sharp, aerodynamic, quick. But so much of it is mental, too. It's how you show up and show out for yourself. You need to be confident. You can't get psyched out by your competitors. At the end of the day, yeah, I'm racing all the other standing men. But, I'm really racing my best results."
The Shift
The turning point of his career came from grief, and from choosing what to do with it.
"My best friend passed away right before our National Championships one year, so I took a three-year hiatus. When I came back, I had a new sense of purpose within the sport. I was racing not only for myself and everything that I stand for, but also with her and for her. I wore her prayer card in my speed suit. And when I came back, it was to ski professionally. That's when everything took off."
Within two years of returning to the NAC's High Performance team, O'Hearn had gone from a competitor to a contender. Fueled in remembrance of his best friend, Emily.
"The love for this sport runs so deep, it's so profound, that any lows just really can't keep me down. The feeling of carving, the feeling of being swift and sharp..it's something I just crave. And being representative as someone who's vocal and outspoken and proud of my personality, my sexuality, my disability at that level..that always pushes me, always ignites me to keep going. These lows definitely are there at times. But the highs are too high to let my lows take me down."
O’Hearn qualified for World Cups. And then World Championships. His ranking climbed to the best it had ever been. And then, right before the 2026 Paralympic Games in Cortina, he tore his ACL.
He competed anyway.
“It's not like you have to do this [ski racing]. You want to do it. And I'm always chasing that feeling of between gates where you just feel so alive."
His North Star
O’Hearn lives by four values. He names them with intention.
"Pride, tenacity, alchemy, and grit. They're central in everything I do. They resonate with how I lead and how I live life more than anything. They're central to my identity, central to my life. Alchemy is this whole idea of taking something negative and shifting it into a positive that's beautiful and vibrant. And grit, when you add grit to anything, you're going to persevere, you're gonna overcome."
Pride
Tenacity
Alchemy
Grit
Whether it be from countless doctors appointments to the slopes, or from deep loss to his return, O’Hearn made it to the start gate in Cortina. And he has a fire in the belly for what’s next.
“It's this idea of being told you'll never walk, and then becoming a professional ski racer. Being told you won't live, and then not only living, but thriving through life. We defy everything to make it here. You don't sign up for the Paralympics, you qualify. And it's competitive.”
From competitor to contender. O'Hearn is writing his story with pride, tenacity, alchemy, and grit.
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? Mikey O’Hearn is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
