Hailey Griffin

Quick Facts

• Specialty: Para Alpine Skiing (Sitting) — LW12-1 Classification
• In January 2019, sustained an incomplete L1 spinal cord injury in a car accident
• Began monoskiing in Crested Butte, Colorado in 2020
• Hobbies include accessibility advocacy and spending time with her son

Biographical Information

Hailey Griffin grew up in Paonia, Colorado, a small agricultural community on the Western Slope, nestled between the mountains and the desert plateau. Active across multiple sports through her young adult years, she had no connection to competitive skiing until a car accident in January 2019 changed the course of her life. The crash produced an incomplete L1 spinal cord injury, damage at the first lumbar vertebra that left her with partial paralysis and in her lower body. 

In 2020, she was introduced to monoskiing through adaptive sports programs in Crested Butte, Colorado, a mountain town that has long served as a hub for adaptive outdoor recreation through the Adaptive Sports Center. The sport connected immediately. Within three years of first sitting in a monoski, Griffin had reached the national podium with second- and third-place finishes at the 2023 U.S. and Canadian National Championships.

As part of the National Ability Center High Performance Alpine Team in Park City, Griffin trained under a structured high-performance program alongside some of the country's best para alpine sit-ski racers. Her results continued to build: 1st and 2nd place finishes at the 2024 Winter Park Open and podium results in the women’s sitting slalom at the 2026 U.S. Open National Championships in Park City. On Feb. 24, 2026, she was officially named to the full U.S. Paralympic Team for the Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, her first Paralympic appearance.

Beyond her athletic career, Griffin has been a consistent and visible presence in the adaptive sports community. She has volunteered with and advocated for multiple organizations including the Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, the National Ability Center, the High Fives Foundation, and Sisters in Sports — a network connecting women athletes with disabilities to one another and to opportunities in sport. She also played an active role in creating the Community Compass initiative in Crested Butte, an effort focused on improving physical accessibility throughout the town for people with disabilities.