Colorado Para-Alpine skier seeks return to snow following February accident
Melissa VanArsdale/Courtesy Photo
Everyone that knows her will say Paige VanArsdale is a badass. Her mother Melissa VanArsdale can even recount multiple instances of her toughness.
“One time when she was running cross country for the high school, she totally wiped out and had blood running down her leg but she got up and finished the race with blood pouring down,” Melissa explained. “That’s just how Paige is, she’s always been a fighter and always comes back stronger.”
Paige is accustomed to a fight. The 24-year-old Steamboat Springs para-Alpine skier was born with cerebral palsy and continues in that battle today. Cerebral palsy is a condition that affects brain and nervous system functions, but impacts everyone differently. For Paige, CP makes the right side of her body weaker and less flexible than the other half. Because of this, she struggles with balance.
As a young girl, Paige competed in several sports including T-ball and soccer, but she had a special affinity for the individual sports of swimming and skiing. She began skiing at age 3 and took to para-Alpine racing in her teens. Now, Paige trains with the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah.
This winter, Paige’s competition season got off to a slow start while she was focusing on school work. Her first race of the season came in mid-February in Kimberley, Canada.聽
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On Feb. 15, Paige was faced with three runs of the day; a training run and two competition races. Due to her condition, it is more challenging for Paige to turn left on skis because her downhill leg is weaker. What makes it even harder is the rules of the competition refrain Paige from using a pole on her weak side.
On her final run of the competition day, Paige was nearing the finish when she came across the most challenging slope of the course 鈥� nicknamed Lord’s Leap.
“I was going down the hill and there is a big slope that is kind of steep,” Paige said. “I didn’t really turn very well in the section where my coaches were. I turned at 3 o’clock, right in front of them and I tumbled. At least my skis went off when I wiped out, but I knew that something didn’t seem right when I was getting back up.”
Immediately, Paige’s coach Eric Leirfallom ran up and helped her to the side of the course. After the race finished, Paige clipped back into her skis and gradually made her way down the mountain while writhing in pain with a swelling left knee.
Paige was unable to compete in the remaining races of the week but was still unsure of the severity of her injury. Two days after her accident, she returned to Park City and was taken to Urgent Care, where an X-ray confirmed she had a fractured tibia plateau on the lateral side of the knee joint on her left leg.聽聽
Shortly after, Melissa picked up Paige and drove her home, where she received further testing at Steamboat Orthopaedics and Spine Institute. She was told to go six weeks non-weight-bearing on her left side and utilized both crutches and a wheelchair for the entirety of March and much of April.
“She was able to start physical therapy before she could start walking,” Melissa explained. “They want you to start working your joints so you don’t lock up. They were working her knee joint and trying to get the muscles around the knee strong again because they get weak so fast when you don’t use them and it takes longer to build that muscle back up.”
Paige still has follow-up appointments with SOSI that will involve more X-rays, and she will have at least 11 more physical therapy sessions on her road to recovery. The medical expenses between urgent care, UCHealth radiology, SOSI and physical therapy have added up and Melissa has begun a page to aid in covering the cost.
Despite having a few more credits to earn, Paige recently attended her graduation from Healing Mountain Massage School and dreams of becoming a massage therapist after she completes her anatomy and kinesiology courses this fall.聽
Paige will soon get a recumbent trike that is custom fit for her so she can stay balanced and enjoy the spring and summer mountain air while riding. Once fully recovered, she plans to join some dryland training sessions this summer with her coaches.
She is expected to make a full recovery from the accident and has no plans of putting the skis down anytime soon. She’s prepared to get back on the snow in the winter and continue to chase her skiing dreams.
“I’m definitely going to be joining my ski team again next year, for sure,” Paige said.
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