Thomas Walsh | Beijing 2022 Paralympic Profile
Team USA Para Alpine Skiier Thomas Walsh speaks about learning from his experience in PyeongChang, and explains how his relationship with Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin helps him to become the best skiier he can be.
Video Transcript
THOMAS WALSH: Hi, I'm Thomas Walsh. I'm really excited training here, getting back on the skis after an injury that I had last season. Really looking to gain on that experience that I had in the past Paralympic Games. I came off really strong, and really learned a lot, and had an awesome three years earning a Crystal Globe and some World Cup medals. So feeling pretty good, getting stronger, and just going to keep training and skiing.
I had the privilege of growing up with Mikaela in our town of Vail, and it was a great experience to see both of us go on our own professional skiing paths. Reconnecting with Mikaela this summer, we actually went out and had some fun and went to the driving range and golfed a little bit. And kind of seeing that life outside of the ski hill really helped me push myself to work harder when I'm on the hill.
I'm always asking for tips and tricks, you know, techniques and thoughts about various different things in skiing. But it's really quite a blessing to be able to push each other, and kind of get a glimpse into this different world of skiing.
Able bodied skiing and Paralympic and disabled skiing are very separate worlds. We do the same thing down similar slopes, and we try and go as fast as we can, but we do it so differently, and the worlds around that is-- is, you know, vastly different. So having that kind of comparison brings us together, and also pushes me to ski faster.