From NCAA Division 1 Skiing to Winter Paralympics in months: Sydney Peterson's rapid journey with dystonia
February 10, 2026 — WUSA 9 Washington D.C. | KARE 11 Minnesota |
American Paralympic Nordic skier Sydney Peterson shares her remarkable journey from NCAA Division 1 athlete to Paralympic competitor, navigating a progressive neurological disease along the way. Sydney competed at the 2022 Beijing Paralympics in an unusual fashion—she had just started para skiing a couple of months prior and didn't even qualify through the normal route. She received a bipartite invitation from the IPC and wasn't on an official Team USA roster spot, making the entire experience new, terrifying, and exciting all at once. Between COVID restrictions in China and not knowing her competitors, teammates, or coaches, everything was unfamiliar.
Sydney grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota (Lake Elmo), which has a super strong skiing culture. She followed in the footsteps of Jessie Diggins, who also went to Stillwater Area High School, benefiting from a great pipeline of skiers and a community that made a tremendous difference.
At 13, Sydney first got sick with dystonia, a progressive neurological disease that primarily affected her left arm at the time. As it progressed and became more severe—limiting use of her left arm and leg—she was skiing NCAA Division 1 as a college sophomore and feeling increasingly limited. That's when she decided to branch out into para skiing, went through the classification process, raced her first world championships, did well enough to receive that bipartite IPC invitation, and suddenly found herself at the Paralympics at Beijing 2022.
Now heading to Milano Cortina, Italy with experience under her belt, Sydney knows who to ask questions and has people to look up to. She's not focused solely on results—it's just a couple of days out of the year, she says. Instead, she wants to have a good time and ski because she loves to ski and go on adventures in the mountains. She's excited about spectators being there, socializing with athletes from other countries, and learning about everyone else's unique journey to the Winter Paralympics.
0:00 - Introduction
0:14 - Beijing 2022
1:18 - Experience and familiar faces
1:48 - Stillwater, Minnesota
2:29 - Dystonia at 13
3:25 - From NCAA Division 1 to para skiing
4:24 - Just wants to have a good time in Italy
