Snowboarder Kiana Clay Is Fighting to Make Paralympic History
Females with upper-limb disabilities aren t currently allowed to compete in snowboarding events at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing. The Colorado athlete started a petition to change that. Morgan Tilton •
March 10, 2021
In 2017, Kiana Clay’s world fell apart. At the time, she was living in Texas, launching a photography business. “In a three-month span, my parents divorced, my fiancé and I broke up, all my camera equipment was stolen, and I wrecked my truck,” she says. “I was homeless and depressed.”
In the year prior, Clay, who has complete paralysis in her upper right arm, traveled to Copper Mountain to try out snowboarding at Adaptive Action Sports (AAS). There she had met three-time Paralympic medalist Amy Purdy and her husband Daniel Gale. “Amy and Daniel told me, ‘You could be the first female with an upper-limb disability to represent the United States in this category and make this p