Para Snowboarder Brenna Huckaby’s Journey Through Motherhood And Mountains

At just 19, Brenna Huckaby was no stranger to survival. She’d faced cancer, endured the loss of her leg and climbed her way into elite para snowboarding. But motherhood? That felt like a whole new mountain.

“It kind of was like another hurdle at the time,” the two-time Paralympian revealed, recalling her surprise pregnancy with her oldest daughter, Lilah, now 9. Her second daughter, Sloan, was born in 2020.

“It touched on the same feelings that I had when I had cancer — just this complete shift of life and reality — but with an underlying positivity. I wasn’t supposed to be able to have kids. So, when I found out I was pregnant, even though I wasn’t prepared, I knew something great was coming.”

Now a four-time Paralympic medalist and a leading advocate for inclusion in sport, she’s also the kind of mom who shows up, speaks up and isn’t afraid to admit that parenting is hard. Really hard.

“But it’s not hard forever,” the 29-year-old added. “That’s something I wish I knew sooner.”

Like many parents, Huckaby struggled early on with a cycle of self-doubt and shame. Having gotten a lot of great parenting guidance over the years, a game-changing piece of advice came from the book “The Power of Showing Up,” which was recommended by her therapist.

“I was deep in, am I doing this right? Am I messing up my kids? How can I do better?” she remembered. But what she learned from the book was that “it’s okay if things don’t go perfectly. What matters is acknowledging when you didn’t show up the way you wanted and apologizing and moving forward intentionally.” Before learning to focus on the repair, she said, “I was paralyzed by always trying to do the right thing.”

One of Huckaby’s favorite things about being a parent is also one of the hardest.

About her children, she said, “They show you parts of yourself you didn’t even know needed work. It’s pretty cool because had I not been challenged through parenting, I don’t know if I would have as much personal growth and understanding of myself as I do now.”

Her daughters, she said, are mirrors: reflecting her strengths, her struggles and her own capacity for growth.

She grounds her parenting in values over performance, stressing the importance of kindness above all. “Since they were really little, I’ve always asked them, ‘Were you kind today?’ And we make the distinction that kindness is not always the same as niceness,” she clarified. “You can still have your boundaries and speak up for yourself, and come from a loving place.

It’s a lesson Huckaby said she still struggles with.

“I can be a little too outspoken when maybe I shouldn’t,” she joked, “so I hope they have better discernment on when to dial it back and observe.”

In 2022, her outspokenness became a virtue when she had to fight for not only her place on the team headed to Beijing, but for the legitimacy of her entire classification. When the Paralympic qualification guide excluded her Lower Limb 1 (LL1) category (above-the-knee amputees), she took legal action.

“I remember thinking: one of the missions of the Paralympics is to change the perceptions of disability and make an impact in society, but how can we do that if we exclude the most disabled category?” she said. Representation matters — and Huckaby understood that without visibility, it would be nearly impossible to grow the sport or inspire more women to join it. The lawsuit succeeded. Huckaby and others were granted the right to compete, and she continues to push for equal representation at future Games, hoping her daughters will grow up in a world where inclusion doesn’t have to be fought for in courtrooms.

“I hope they learn to question things. To speak up. To be their own person,” she said, laughing, “even if that means questioning me.”

Huckaby strives to be honest about her journey, even with hard stuff like body image, social media and self-worth. She’s turned her life experiences into teachable lessons she shares at home.

“I try not to talk about my body, my husband, too,” she said, “because we don’t want them to look at their body as something that needs commentary.”

While Huckaby, who has been open about experiencing eating disorder thoughts, also shares openly about food on social media with humorous reels on meal prepping and admitting to a love of desserts. But for now, her conversations with her daughters about food are “ways we can fuel our energy so that we can do the activities that we want to do,” she said.

So, what does it mean to be a “normal” mom?

“A mom who cares,” she said simply. In the past, she used to associate being a normal mom with what her body looked like, but now, “I know I am a normal mom — and an awesome mom — because I show up for my kids. It doesn’t matter what your body looks like.”

Even amid training for the Paralympics in Milan next year, fighting for fairness in para sport, and raising outspoken daughters in an image-obsessed world, she holds tight to the core of what motherhood has taught her.

“It’s been difficult, but it’s been deeply rewarding,” she said. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Lisa Costantini has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than a decade, including for the International Olympic Committee. She is a freelance writer who has contributed to TeamUSA.com since 2011.