'A whirlwind journey': Sit-skier Kurt Oatway’s fight to return to the Paralympics

In his Calgary home gym, Kurt Oatway is lifting weights and doing pull-ups — part of the final training push before the 2026 Paralympic Games in Italy. 

At age 41, the elite sit-skier shows a steely determination to fight his way back to the top of the world stage after a devastating crash left him severely injured and forced to watch the 2022 Beijing Games at home.

"Before I got into an ambulance, before I got to the hospital, before surgeries and everything, I knew I wasn't going to China," Oatway said during an interview at his kitchen table.

The crash at the world championships in Lillehammer, Norway left him with broken bones, torn ligaments and a punctured lung. It happened just weeks before the Paralympics.

"I decided, you know, right there in the hospital, I was just like, 'This isn't going to be the end,'" he said.

The disrupting crash became the latest obstacle in Oatway’s journey — a career marked by resilience and perseverance.

Growing up in Edmonton in a family of skiers, he learned the sport at age five, as an able-bodied athlete. But while studying geology at the University of Saskatchewan, a rock climbing accident in 2007 left him with a permanent spinal cord injury.

Three years later, determined to ski again after watching the Paralympics on television, Oatway turned to the adaptive program at Mission Ridge, a small community hill about 75 kilometres northeast of Regina.

On a clear March day in 2010, he made his first turns in a sit-ski down the 80-metre Saskatchewan slope.

"I kind of just wanted to get back into skiing as a return to normalcy, a semblance of what I was doing before I had gotten injured," he said.

Fuelled by a competitive spirit, Oatway caught on fast. He quickly advanced from skiing attached by tethers to a coach, to flying down the hill and carving at his own pace — the kind of progress that takes a year for many athletes who are new to the sport.

"I was amazed all day at how fast his development was," said coach Gord Poulton, who taught Oatway to sit-ski.

"I’m not sure at that point if he knew whether he was going to be a Paralympic skier or not, but we saw the potential."

At the Mission Ridge lodge, the ski community’s pride in Oatway’s success — and belief in his potential — shows on the walls. Framed bibs from World Cup races, trophies, signed skis and posters are on display.