Paralympian Spencer Wood Has Upped His Game On Skis

Spencer Wood poses for a photo during Jan. 2019 in Winter Park, Colo. Photo courtesy of U.S. Paralympic Alpine Skiing.

KILLINGTON, Vt. — When Team USA caught up with Spencer Wood back in March 2018, he was about to compete in his first Paralympic Games.
Back then, he was 21 years old, a sophomore at the University of Colorado-Boulder, a guy with a big smile who was eager to prove himself on the world stage. But he had only begun competing as a Paralympic alpine skier three years earlier and the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 did not go as he hoped.
He was undeterred by the experience. And since then, much has changed for Wood. He is now a college graduate, and his confidence has soared. With another season of World Para Alpine Skiing World Cups on his calendar, plus the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, Wood has become a podium contender.
So what led to his athletic transformation?

First, some background. Wood grew up in Pittsfield, Vermont. His parents were ski instructors at nearby Killington Resort and their two kids were on skis around the time they could walk. [A notable fact: Wood is a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin. Like Franklin, Wood is left-handed, and the two share the same birthday — Jan. 17.]
Wood was soon racing through gates. But his parents had yet to tell their son that he was disabled. Wood had a left-brain stroke in utero, which left him with right-side hemiparesis (permanent weakness and muscle deficits on his right side). His parents wanted him to adapt to his physical impairment on his own without using it as an excuse. They finally told him when he was 10 and wanted to try out for the baseball team. His right-side weakness would be more evident on the baseball field.
But on skis, Wood felt like any other kid on the mountain.
“Skiing was something that came so naturally to me being a Vermonter and growing up in a ski town,” he said four years ago. “It seemed totally normal just to go out and rip with your friends and see who could be the fastest one down the hill.”
When he was a high school junior at the Killington Mountain School, Wood’s ski-racing coaches suggested that he try Para skiing. He was classified as LW4, the same classification for standing skiers with a below-the-knee amputation, and he finished fifth in his first Para alpine race. 
That was January 2015, and Wood has never looked back. While he was in college at Boulder, he trained at the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colorado.

Spencer Wood competes in the men's standing giant slalom at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 on March, 14, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.

“It was a solid six weeks of pain cave,” he said. “I really needed it for my mental health, and it was fantastic.”
While working out at the OPTC, he also thought of one of his good friends who had passed away earlier in the summer from fentanyl. It made Wood realize that he could not take any day for granted.
“It upped my game when I was in the Springs and really helped me focus in on what my goals were, how hard I want to achieve those goals, how badly I need to achieve them because I just have had so many years of mediocrity,” said Wood. “And I just can't stand for that anymore.”
Wood also began working with a sports psychologist who had him think about doing something new every day.
“Like water droplets at the end of the month, end of the year, you've got a huge bucket full of water,” explained Wood. “It's called plus one. What's the plus one that you're working on that nobody else is? 
As he worked out at the OPTC, Wood kept asking himself, “Can I work a little harder on the mountain bike? Can I get the form a little more explosive in the gym? Can I eat more food? Sleep longer?”

At this season’s first NorAm races in Panorama, British Columbia — a slalom, giant slalom, and two super-Gs — Wood finished no lower than fifth and stood on the podium twice. He loves the speed events, and he was less than a half-second off Walsh in the two super-Gs.
Wood then traveled to Switzerland in December for the first Para world cup races but suffered a concussion in training. After recovering, then training again at home in Vermont over the Holidays, Wood headed to Europe again for more world cups in January 2022.
As for his medal hopes in Beijing, Wood would like to think he is a favorite to stand on the Paralympic podium in one of skiing’s four disciplines: slalom, GS, super-G and downhill. 
“My heart wants me to be there,” he admitted. 
But like most Olympians and Paralympians, Wood is process driven. 
“My goal,” he continued, “is to not really focus on the result but just focus on how much improvement I have made and be happy, be content that my finish is as good as I could have gotten and that I did everything I could to make my family and my nation proud.”