CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy -- Bates alpine skiing alumnus Tyler McKenzie '14 is the first Paralympian in the college's history, as announced this week by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. 

McKenzie, who spent three years in the Bates men's alpine skiing program, is part of a 72-member 2026 U.S. Paralympic Team that are set to compete at the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. The Paralympic Winter Games features nine days of competition, starting this Saturday.

A para Alpine skier, McKenzie will be competing in the standing Downhill, Super-G, Combined, Giant Slalom, and slalom events at the Games. He arrives at this point after a long journey that started in 2017 when he suffered a complete brachial plexus avulsion while free skiing with a group of friends in Utah. 

"I had to deal with the realization that I had pretty much lost all of the ability to use my left arm," McKenzie says. "There were a couple of surgical options, a couple of different strategies, but to have lost all five nerve roots of the plexus right at the spinal column, it's pretty much impossible to repair with modern surgical techniques and technology." 

An avid biker as well, McKenzie began a long, painful process towards getting outside and active again. He worked with the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah to try and find a way to get back on a bike. Along the way, he learned about the possibility of para Alpine skiing from Erik Leirfallom, the center's high-performance para Alpine coach at the time.

"We had a meeting and a beer, and he invited me to a camp to see if it was still fun," McKenzie says. "At the end of the day, we participate in sports because there is some level of enjoyment factor. Whether you're making a bunch of money or not, there's some sort of passion for movement and being outside in a lot of capacities. And I decided that as COVID hit the world, that this was an opportunity for me to pursue both movement and the outdoors."

"The bug was still there, the itch was still there. It's a sport that's hard to let go." 

McKenzie, who had his shoulder fused a few months after his injury, took to para Alpine skiing despite numerous adjustments he had to make.

"I ski with a rigid arm brace that keeps me in a bent athletic ski position," McKenzie says. "And then my shoulder has some limited mobility and that lets me stay in that pocket for skiing. There are some imbalance issues that I have to navigate. Otherwise, I'm skiing with a single pole and just trying to get as symmetrical as I possibly can with my movements." 

In late 2019, McKenzie competed in his first para Alpine skiing event in Winter Park, Colorado, in a race hosted by the National Sports Center for the Disabled.

"It was kind of surreal pushing back at the start gate," McKenzie says. "Things were different. I was piecing equipment together by myself, trying to figure out what worked, what didn't, and really just being a new person in a community that resembled the community that I grew up with, but filled with characters from all different walks of life. There were people that grew up skiing, people that didn't, people that were just being introduced to the sport of alpine racing, sit skiers, amputees, people with stories just as crazy, if not crazier than mine."

McKenzie set his sights on the 2022 Beijing Paralympics. But about four weeks before the start of the games, McKenzie broke his ankle while skiing the downhill event at the World Championships in Norway. Ever persistent, McKenzie rehabbed his ankle and also made the decision to have open cervical spine surgery in 2023.

"I used to deal with nerve pain that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies on a day-in and day-out basis," McKenzie says. "I didn't sleep much for five, almost six years. It was a pretty big detriment to my physical and mental health. And I had done everything I could to try to resolve that pain without going down a route that was invasive and carried a lot of risk with it."

Fortunately, the surgery worked. McKenzie's life improved greatly and a new fire was lit.

"I realized the 2026 Paralympics were on the table," McKenzie says. "I was skiing fast, my fitness was coming up, and now the question was 'how do I make the U.S. ski team and put myself in the best position to have a couple of seasons of World Cup experience before hitting the world stage of the games?'"

"It involved me systematically using my resources at the National Ability Center and my own experience and all my own knowledge and pushing pretty hard from that surgery in 2023 up until now and making full-time team status last year." 

Once McKenzie became a full-time member of the 12-person Team U.S.A squad in 2025, it was only a matter of time before he became a Paralympian. Still, the official call packed a big emotional impact.

"The call itself came from my head coach and there was definitely excitement and definitely some rah, rah and some virtual fist bumping going on," McKenzie says. "And then I had to get in the car to drive for four and a half hours up to Sun Valley. So it was more during that ride and calling mom and dad and calling some of my close friends to let them know that things had finally been put in stone. That's where stuff started to hit me."

On the eve of competition at the Paralympics, McKenzie is enjoying his experience so far.

"I hadn't been to Cortina before and it's absolutely immaculate scenery," McKenzie says. "The food is Italian perfection. We flew into Venice and had the opportunity to explore Venice for an evening. So it's been a really, really wild experience and another reason to fall in love with this country. I have been completely blown away by the scenery in particular here compared to some of the other venues that I've been to across Italy."

With all the meetings, logistics, and training runs taken care of prior to the start of the Games, McKenzie is excited to get out there and compete at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre. 

"To be the first Bates College Paralympian is such an honor," McKenzie says. "I want to thank all the Bobcats that have reached out to me since seeing the announcement. It's been really awesome to have professors reach out, old teammates, people that I just hung out with in Commons and all the support I've seen on that end. My years at Bates on the team were an extremely important part of everything that has gotten me here. It's just really cool to have the support from the community and it's a great opportunity to introduce everyone to Parasports."