Alana Nichols Gets a Vacation

Please forgive Paralympic basketball and Alpine skiing star Alana Nichols if she needs to chill out a bit this summer.

For a month or two, Nichols will not be her usual swirl of activity.

Her usual state is intense, befitting the first American woman to win gold in a summer and winter Paralympics.

She's usually training, preparing for games or races, or traveling the world to compete.

Her life in the past few months has been a blur: winning four medals (two gold, one silver, one bronze) in the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, being honored as the U.S. Olympic Committee's female athlete of the month in March 2009, and then ending up as a VIP visitor to the White House and Pentagon and meeting first lady Michelle Obama in late April.

And then came May 7, which was declared as "Alana Nichols Day," complete with a party, in her hometown of Farmington, N.M.

"I don't think it's all even begun to sink in or hit me yet. In fact, I know so," Nichols, 27, said. "I'm just kind of decompressing. I went into my first Paralympics with no expectations on myself. Then all these things started happening. I was winning; I was a gold medalist.

"Now I'm going to the White House and Pentagon, meeting these amazing people, and having a day named after me ... wow. It's a lot of really good things happening in a short space for me."

Nichols' story speaks to the determination of a skilled athlete who sets very high goals. She has been athletic since childhood - snowboarding and playing softball and other sports.

Her life changed at 17, when a snowboarding accident left her partially paralyzed. She was left with limited mobility below her belly button. She wondered what kind of life she could have.

Her dream of playing college softball, and someday competing in the Olympic Games like her hero, gold medalist softball pitcher Jennie Finch, was over.

In time, through the support of family and friends, Nichols discovered new athletic dreams. She turned to wheelchair basketball, finding that her strength, athleticism and determination made her a world-class player.

She won a gold medal with Team USA during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Nichols had been toying with the thought of also being a world-class skier too. She launched her far-fetched plans into motion when she got home from Beijing.

In her mind, she had a little less than two years to become good enough to make the U.S. Ski Team for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

Her adaptive ski coaches, Erik Petersen and Ray Watkins, figured they would let Nichols prove herself on the mountain, but also were admittedly skeptical.

"We were at Copper Mountain doing race training, and I told her to get out there and start skiing - let's see what you've got," Petersen remembers. "She looks at me, kind of shaky, and says, ‘You want me to ski by myself?' That's what we do; we are totally independent. You have to get yourself into the monoski, you have to get on the lift by yourself, you have to pick yourself up when you fall.

"Those things are non-negotiable. This was it: Let's see how serious this basketball player really is about being a skier. I figured either she'd catch on, or she'd be gone by the end of the day."

Nichols survived, despite more than a few mishaps getting on the lift that resulted in unforgiving whacks from the chair. Petersen took note of her determination: This basketball player had the chops.

"She had such a clean slate, no bad habits to change," Petersen said. "She was a strong athlete, conditioned mentally and physically, ready to go. She was stronger than any athlete I've ever coached. All we had to do is teach her, and let her put in the work from there."

Nichols' transformation from basketball player to skier wasn't without glitches. Basketball is a true team sport, meaning a player having a bad day can rely on teammates to help get a win. Skiing is solitary, putting all the responsibility on Nichols.

No excuses. No down days allowed.

Some skiers treated her coolly, wondering whether she was really committed.

Was she just fooling around?

"It was a huge adjustment, realizing even a tiny mistake, like the angle I take the gate, can be the difference in a split-second and winning and losing," Nichols said. "I know some people wondered what I was doing, and why I was doing it. I get it, because they were really dedicated to being competitive skiers. And then I come in."

Her mastery kicked in first in the speed events. She looked good in American competitions, but Petersen didn't want her getting her hopes too high only a year away from the Paralympic Winter Games.

He told Nichols, whom he lovingly calls "Pork Chop," to shoot for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Nichols had a different timetable. She skied her first World Cup circuit in the 2009-10 season and overcame a rough start to find her groove.

She was emotional, feeling stressed and also grieving the death of her older brother, D.J. Nichols, 29, who died unexpectedly in June 2009.

Nichols, three years younger than her brother, tried to deal with her grief and concentrate on racing. Jumping to the World Cup circuit with a heavy heart was hard.

She experienced disaster in the opening races in Austria, posting "did not finish" results in four events.

The snow was different, and the competition was much stronger. She started to question her talent.

"I thought, ‘If this is how it's going to be, maybe I really am not good enough,' " Nichols said. "Maybe it's too much."

Nichols regained her confidence and tore through the rest of the European season. She won her first World Cup downhill race, in Sestriere, Italy.

She came to Vancouver feeling confident, but she refused to put expectations on her first Paralympic Winter Games.

And then the rain came. Warm weather and the rain turned the snowpack into crunchy slush.

Visibility was also poor. But for Nichols, this was a good sign.

The moment she learned of her brother's death, while standing on her sister's driveway last June, blue skies turned into a rainstorm.

She was crying and wailing in grief with her sisters Julianne and Jovan.

And now the sky was crying too.

Nine months later, Nichols was readying for her second run down the Paralympic Giant Slalom course. She felt chills, and then she burst into tears.

D.J. was there.

"I know it sounds so spooky and weird, but I felt my brother in the rain on that hill in Vancouver," Nichols said. "I am beyond sure of it. Not all rains mean I feel D.J., but the ones in Vancouver, especially before the GS, I know it was him. I got myself together."

She won gold in the GS race, won the downhill, and took silver in the super-G and bronze in the super combined. One Paralympic Winter Games, four medals.

"The sky is the limit for Alana. I can see her taking a medal, if not gold, in every event in Sochi if she keeps progressing like this," said Watkins, the coach of the U.S. Adaptive Ski Team. "She is incredibly talented, driven, and so positive. She's inspirational."

So what's next for Nichols?

Basketball in the London 2012 Paralympic Games?

Skiing in the 2010-11 World Cup season, with an eye toward Sochi in 2014?

Nichols hasn't made her mind up yet, as the quiet time this summer will be used to reflect on these things and missing D.J.

But it sounds as if both basketball and skiing might be a go.

"I love them both, I really do," Nichols said. "It's like using two sides of me, and both are really stimulating and fun. I can see myself in London, going for it again with Team USA. And I am definitely looking forward to skiing. There's so much I want to do. I need to get better in the technical events. I want to win the World Cup title.

"A really good goal would be for me to win gold in the slalom in Sochi. That would really show how far I've come at this. But we'll see."

Peterson hopes to tip the scale for skiing over basketball.

"You can only win one medal in basketball, but in skiing, she could win five golds in Sochi," Petersen said. "She's really that good. She's amazing."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Joanne C. Gerstner is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of any National Governing Bodies.