Sports Reporter
At 23, CMU’s Heidi Jo Duce is the youngest person on the U.S. Paralympic Snowboarding team and one of ten athletes with lower limb impairments who are debuting in Sochi as part of the alpine skiing program.
She was born with the congenital birth defect fibular hemimelia, a condition in which the fibula is absent, along with most of the bones in the ankle. At 18 months, Duce underwent surgery to remove what remained of her right leg below the knee and had a second corrective amputation when she was 19.
“It’s all I’ve ever known,” she said. “People ask me a lot whether or not if I could get a leg or if I could have been able-bodied [if I would do it]. And there’s no way in hell I could ever do that. I love being an amputee. It’s the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I’ve had phenomenal, amazing opportunities because of it.”
Some of those opportunities have included the chance to compete nationally last season as a Paralympic snowboarder in the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Nor-Am Cup at Copper Mountain and South Lake Tahoe, Calif. After winning bronze at both, Duce was invited onto the World Cup Circuit, competing and winning three bronze medals in Canada and Slovenia.
This season, Duce was on the World Cup Circuit again, where she took silver and bronze at Copper Mountain and Lake Tahoe, as well as another silver and bronze at the two World Cups in Canada. She recently returned to the Western Slope from Spain, where she took silver and, upon finishing the last of the World Cup Finals, discovered she was ranked second overall in the world. This is her second year ever racing boardercross.
“As far as my race accomplishments, that was huge,” she said. “One of my goals was to step up my game and be a more consistent, better rider. It’s much harder to make a podium than it was last year, and I’m very proud of what I did. I’ve had to work really hard to get back to where I was.”
Where she “was” refers to the time before her shoulder injury in October.
“For me, the shoulder injury was difficult, but I would say the hardest thing is being committed to my training schedule,” she said. “My big goal was to ride consistently. I’d do amazing and then fall, and my goal this year was to fix that and be able to do three runs straight. Being able to get in that mindset and training myself to get there has been a really big challenge for me.”
Duce estimates that since November, she has had about 20 days off of snow, most of which have been travel days. They drive to the mountains, train for two days and race for two days, then travel to the next destination.
All of her hard work and dedication paid off in the best way possible when she was given the chance to compete on the U.S. Paralympic team in Sochi come March. The opportunity is a huge accomplishment for the athlete, but it is also a frightening one.
“I’m scared to disappoint people,” Duce said. “I have so much support for what I’m doing. I have no financial sponsors. I am able to do what I’m doing because of the town that I grew up in. Ouray has financially and emotionally supported me throughout this journey more than I can even explain. I have hundreds of people cheering for me, and I’m very nervous to disappoint them.”
Although she has been to Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Canada, Spain, and several places in the U.S., Duce has never really had much time to explore the countries she has trained and competed in. If she could pick anywhere to travel, Duce says she would be in “South America, kayaking during the summer down there.” It’s a sport that has Duce’s heart in a way that no other, including snowboarding, does.
“It’s my favorite thing in the entire world. There’s nothing like [it],” she said. “Pretty much every sport you can do, you can stop in the middle. If you’re going down the mountain you can decide halfway through that you want to stop. But once you’re in there, you’re committed. I have pretty severe ADD, so for me, the fact that when I’m in my boat I’m 100 percent concentrated means a sense of calm that I don’t find anywhere else.”
Thus far the prospect of competing in the Paralympic Games in Sochi is a huge deal for Duce, but regardless of how scary it seems, she still sees herself doing snowboard cross competitively for at least four more years.
“I’m not the kind of person that really likes to plan out their life,” she said, “but basically I hope to be happy no matter what it is I’m doing. Whether I’m retired from racing or working outdoors with kids or married, I refuse to do something that won’t make me happy.”
This is the first time in history that snowboard cross is included in the Paralympics, and Duce is a part of the first-ever U.S. adaptive team. It is also the first time that the entire Paralympics will be televised, and Duce encourages everyone to watch the events in support. The opening ceremony is March 7, with Duce and the rest of the U.S. Para Snowboard Cross team competing on March 14.
arildefonso@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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