Summit County locals and Adaptive Action Sports athletes Mike Minor and Kiana Clay will compete in the debut adaptive skateboard events on Sunday, May 23, at Dew Tour in Des Moines, Iowa.
Sunday’s Dew Tour contests include men’s street and park and women’s adaptive skate finals from 8:15 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time through noon Mountain Daylight Time. The Summit duo will be joined by another para snowboarder and skater in U.S. Paralympian Evan Strong.
Speaking Saturday, May 22, in between practice sessions, Minor an X Games medalist in adaptive skate said the first time para skate exhibition is a great example of mainstream representation for the sport. That’s especially the case as the Dew Tour is a qualifying event for hundreds of the world’s best skateboarders ahead of the 2022 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in Japan. Adaptive skateboarding is not a part of the 2022 Paralympic slate.
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
Jan 28, 2021
SPONSOR
Burton Snowboards is proud to welcome Kiana Clay to the team. Kiana is a successful rider on the US Adaptive Action Sports Snowboarding Team competing in both Para Banked Slalom and Para Snowboard Cross. Kiana lost her dominant right arm in a motocross accident, and since then, she has overcome major challenges to continue racing motocross and take that competitive mindset into competitive snowboarding. Kiana is currently competing through the World Cup series with the goal of qualifying for the next Winter Paralympics.
Kiana has worked closely with Burton over the years, providing valuable insights for the Step On® platform. Her feedback has been incorporated in product support, product development, and product testing for the Step On® system to make it easier for para-riders to participate in snowboarding. This system benefits riders with disabilities by making it simpler to enter and exit the binding without sacrificing performance. The modular des