Out Paralympic skier Hailey Griffin is done being told she ‘can’t’ and she’s proving it in Milan
'We’re putting in just as much effort and making just as many sacrifices as most everyone else,' Hailey Griffin says. 'My disability doesn’t define who I am as a person, nor does my sexuality, but they are a part of me.' The post Out Paralympic skier Hailey Griffin is done being told she ‘can’t’ and she’s proving it in Milan appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
“Hailey Griffin is a strong-ass woman and mother and if that were all you knew of her she’d be happy.”
That is the opening line of out para alpine skier Hailey Griffin’s bio on the website of the Sisters In Sports Foundation, an organization supporting and fostering relationships between women and girls with disabilities “through love of sports and mentorship.”
“That description just felt fitting and straight to the point,” Griffin said. “I am a strong-ass woman, one who is going to do everything she can to continue to live a life that she can be proud of, and I’m a mother, a role that has taught me more than anything else in my life. I also just love my boy more than everything. So, if nothing else, that’s all you ever really need to know.”
While it may be all you need to know in Griffin’s mind to understand the strength, sense of achievement and influence she represents in her community, it only scratches the surface of the woman who will add Paralympian to that description in a matter of days.
Griffin is set to compete in the women’s slalom and giant slalom in the sitting designation next week, the latest summit in a mono-skiing career that started in 2020 after sustaining an L1 spinal cord injury in early 2019. She identifies as bisexual and is among the out LGBTQ athletes competing in the Paralympics.
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“My immediate reaction was disbelief,” Griffin said when asked about learning she would be competing in Milan. “That really hasn’t left me. I thought that it would hit me once I boarded the plane to Italy, but I still somewhat feel as though I’m rolling through a dream.”
According to Griffin, that Paralympic “dream” first formed for her before she was even out of the hospital.
“I had just completed what’s called ‘The Big Dog Challenge,’ where you have to do a certain circuit of exercises in a certain amount of time, and one of my friends and fellow patient said, ‘Wow! We’re going to see Hailey at the Paralympics one day,” she told Outsports. “As soon as I heard that, my wheels started turning. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but I knew that I wanted to.”
While Griffin initially thought triathlon would be her athletic passion, she fell in love with monoskiing as soon as she tried it. Within three years, she found herself on the podium at the Open National Championships — the first in what would become a pattern for the Colorado native. She enters the 2026 Games with third-place finishes in both the slalom and giant slalom at the 2026 Open National Championships.
Despite finding success, Griffin is quick to point out that winning is far from the top driving force for her when it comes to sports.
“I just know deep down in my being that if I get too caught up in the competition and winning part of it all, then I will lose sight of what’s really important to me: fostering healthy community, learning, growing, having fun and making the most of the opportunities that are presented to me,” she said. “My best friend and I call it ‘purity of essence.’”
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‘Without fear of judgment’
That sentiment speaks to the free-spirited edge she has become known for, which Griffin credits to freedom to roam around her mountainous hometown of Ridgeway, Colorado, as a kid “acting weird without fear of judgement” and “touting a general disdain for ‘the man’” influenced by her parents.
Griffin points to the car accident that left her paralyzed from the knees down as a catalyst that broke her out of “phases of people-pleasing and caring deeply about others’ opinions” of her, and used the “rage” generated from her romantic partner prior to the accident becoming abusive as fuel.
“I was filled with a lot of rage, still am to a certain extent in a much more healed way, which led to this intense determination to prove to myself and to others that I am worthy and capable,” Griffin said. “My ex used to say ‘can’t’ a lot because of the wheelchair, and something I wrote a few years ago sums up my feelings about that pretty nicely.
“From now on, when someone tells me that I ‘can’t,’ I won’t fight them, won’t argue. I’ll simply remind myself that they’re wrong. That I can. Hell, it might be hard as f*ck, but with enough perseverance, I know that I can f*cking do anything. I hope that we all find this power within ourselves; not to say ‘f*ck you’ but to say ‘f*ck that.’ You say that I can’t? Well, f*ck that.”
Griffin puts that mission forward through her work with organizations advocating for adaptive access to sports, the outdoors and everyday life, including Sisters In Sports, High Fives, the Adaptive Sports Center and the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program.
“It helps to remind people that, even if their approach is completely new and wildly different, life is far from over after injury. They are still capable,” Griffin said. “There is not much else more important than keeping our connection to nature alive. It reminds us who we are, gives us fresh perspective and humbles us in ways not otherwise possible. And sport so often allows us to get out in it … the bonds it helps to facilitate are pretty incredible.”
There is also a pride Griffin takes in representing the LGBTQ community and para athletes through competing.
“We’re out here and we’re putting in just as much effort and making just as many sacrifices as most everyone else,” she said. “My disability doesn’t define who I am as a person, nor does my sexuality, but they are a part of me. My hope is that with further representation, people will begin to see me and people like me as a whole instead of judging us solely on a few of our more ‘controversial’ parts.”
Those same lessons fit into what she hopes her son takes away from seeing his mother compete on the Paralympic stage.
“I hope that he learns from my determination and willingness to suffer and fail, and that he picks up on the importance of representing oneself in as true a way as possible,” Griffin said. “It only takes one step, or in my case one push, at a time to make your dreams a reality.”
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The post Out Paralympic skier Hailey Griffin is done being told she ‘can’t’ and she’s proving it in Milan appeared first on Outsports.
