Time Is the Most Valuable Currency in the World. Paralympian Michael Kneeland Spends It With Others.
Most athletes talk about what they're chasing. Michael Kneeland talks about who. It’s Aaron Pike.
When Michael Kneeland first came up through the U.S. Paralympic Nordic development team, he found himself at a World Cup without a coach readily available. The national coaches were occupied. His development coach was back home. He was young, new, and largely on his own on one of the biggest stages of his young life. So he did what any resourceful, completely unintimidated 20-year-old would do.
He found the best skier on the snow and he followed him.
"It's easy to learn from a visual person who does the skiing, so I just went behind him and skied on the track, followed him the whole time, doing whatever he does."
The team noticed. The nickname “Pikael” was born.
"Over the years of training and traveling with him, we have so much fun playing board games, car games, random jokes we have, because we love humor. They like to make fun of me, because sometimes I'm being too honest and too blunt. But I use that as leverage to start a nice conversation."
A 20-year-old and a nearly 40-year-old, separated by two decades and united by skis. And the unlikely friendship started because a kid with no coach available decided to follow the best guy on the snow.
The Most Valuable Currency in the World
Before we get to the races and his Paralympics debut, we must begin where Michael begins. With time.
“Time is the most valuable currency in the world, because you only have so much time to do whatever you want. You can't make more time."
Here’s how Kneeland spends his:
Nordic training Tuesday through Friday
A full college course load stacked deliberately after morning sessions so his brain stays sharp when his body is spent
Wednesday and Thursday nights at church ministry
Friday afternoons coaching a high school robotics club
Sundays reserved for homework and, when the schedule allows, time with friends.
“I believe that humans can do a lot if they're willing to put the time into it,” he says, “I'm really just blessed that I'm able to do these things. I have both discipline and also the desire to do it all.
Two Weeks
He found out he made the Paralympic team two weeks before he left.
There were fourteen days between the moment Kneeland learned he was going to Tesero, Italy to represent the United States of America at the Paralympic Winter Games, and the moment he actually got on a plane and went.
His family couldn't come.
"My family was really bummed they couldn’t be there. Because by the time I found out I had made it, the tickets were pretty expensive. We’re talking $7,000 per person."
Kneeland is one of five siblings. And when he stood at the start line of his Paralympic debut — the single greatest athletic moment of his life — they were all tuning in from afar.
He now has a plan for what he’s going to do about it.
The Fuel for What’s Next
The fuel driving him forward is not glory or recognition or sponsorships or rankings. It is the vision of his five siblings, his parents, and his college friends who couldn't afford a transatlantic flight in the stands. On home soil.
"I gotta ski at least in Salt Lake 2034 so that I can have all my people come to watch me without it costing an arm and a leg."
Because for Kneeland, it has always been about the people.
Which is exactly why, when you ask him what the highlight of his Paralympic debut was, he talks about pin trading.
"I like the Olympic tradition of trading pins with other athletes. I thought that was neat, because it's such an easy way to start building relationships with other athletes from different countries.”
In a moment obsessed with metrics, with margins, with the fraction-of-a-second comeback stories, Kneeland is a first-time Paralympian, inside one of the most competitive athletic environments on the planet, and celebrating the joy of pin trading and making new friends from other countries.
With Paris and Salt Lake City ahead of him, Kneeland already knows exactly how he's going to spend his time. And he’s not wasting a second.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich and I’m 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? Michael Kneeland is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered stories. Follow the journey!
