Anna Soens, an alpine skier from Bend with incomplete paralysis, is shown competing with adaptive equipment in a slalom race in Park City, UT in February 2025 in this handout photo. Soens qualified for five skiing events at the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milan Cortina.
Courtesy National Ability Center
Next Friday, the 2026 Paralympic Games kick off in Milan Cortina, the same region in Northern Italy that hosted the recently concluded Winter Olympics. Anna Soens is an alpine skier from Bend with incomplete paralysis who earned a spot on the Team USA roster. She will now head to Italy to join more than 650 athletes from around the world vying for victory in nearly 80 medal events.
It is her first time competing in the Paralympics where she has qualified for five events: downhill, super-G, alpine combined, giant slalom and slalom. The achievement is even more impressive considering that she has only been skiing with the use of adaptive equipment for less than a decade after an accident at a Portland rock climbing gym left her with incomplete paralysis below the hips. In 2018, Soens became the first woman with paraplegia to summit Mt. Hood, which she did with her father, and she is the first person to descend its summit using a sit-ski.
Soens joins us to share her remarkable athletic journey and hopes for her Paralympic races.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
