Saylor O’Brien has never been one to follow the crowd. A rising star in U.S. Para alpine skiing, she has carved out her own path to success by embracing what makes her different. Born with Spina Bifida, O’Brien fell in love with winter sports at an early age, and her childhood passion for skiing has grown into a Paralympic dream.
The Woodland, Utah native has trained with the National Ability Center’s High-Performance Alpine Team since 2017 and joined the Stifel U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team in 2022. Now, she is aiming to make her first Paralympic team.
In the conversation below, O’Brien discusses her journey into alpine skiing, opens up about mental health, the lessons she’s learned from Olympic champion Picabo Street, what it means to chase her Paralympic dreams, and the power of authenticity.
The 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympics begin on March 6 and run through March 15.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The conversation took place in August 2025.
Mary Omatiga: You grew up trying a lot of different sports. How did you get your start in skiing, and what made you stick with it? What did you love about it?
Saylor O’Brien: My parents are snowboarders, so they already had a cool attachment to the mountain and the snow. Throughout my childhood of trying different sports, eventually they were like, “we’re going to have you try skiing or snowboarding.” They initially put me in an old pair of ski boots and skis, and I would stand in the living room and watch TV to get comfortable and get used to it. Once I got comfortable, they put me out on the snow and in the Wasatch Adaptive Sports program in Snowbird, Utah. Everything just took off from there. The more I fell in love with it, the more I wanted to do it.
What are your earliest or most vivid memories of watching the Olympics and Paralympics? Was there a moment that made you say, “I want to do that”?
O’Brien: I started skiing at age four, so I probably didn’t realize that there were the Olympics and Paralympics until I was about 10. I saw that they had Paralympic skiing, and at the time, I was going around the little kids’ course that they put in the ski school area. In my head, I was already doing the racing, so I thought, why not give the Paralympics a shot and see how that goes? To be on such a big stage like that, I thought it was really cool. So from age 10 on, I was super sold on this goal to go to the Paralympics.
When did you realize you wanted to compete, and when did you realize you had the talent to do it at an elite level?
O’Brien: I think I just worked really hard at it, and the results came. I saw the results of working hard, so that was proof to me that I could. There wasn’t a sense of doubt. I just knew if I put in the work, then it would come. I loved [the sport] so much that I couldn’t help but stay motivated. I don’t think it was necessarily talent. I think it was just a lot of drive.
I know Picabo Street is someone you’ve admired. Can you talk about how she’s inspired you?
O’Brien: Yeah, gosh, I love Picabo! She’s such an amazing woman, and she’s been such an amazing mentor to look up to as an athlete, as a female, and in the skiing community. I think that she and I share a similar sense of fire and drive for our sports, putting everything we’ve got into them.
She was certainly a female who was very [vocal]. She wasn’t afraid to tell people how she felt or show up as herself. [Seeing that] was super [influential] to my skiing and my career thus far.
It showed me that it’s okay to just be loud and show people who you are — to not be scared of that or ashamed of who you want to be, and show up authentically, while doing the sport that you love.
She’s definitely inspired me to keep going. She’s also shown what it means to be a female in the skiing world. It’s such a small field and community for women, so if I can show up in a way that is different and authentic, that’s all I want.
What does it mean to you to get to do that for Team USA?
O’Brien: It’s huge. I have always found myself incredibly different, regardless of my physical abilities. I was always floating in a different crowd and thinking differently. I feel very honored and proud to have the personality that I have, and to be able to take that image onto such a big stage — to show who I am, what I enjoy, and why I love it. The fact that it’s so incredibly different from everyone else. I think that more people need to see that.
Can you talk about the community that this sport brings, and the role that it’s played in your journey?
O’Brien: The Paralympic community is already small, and when you focus on Paralympic skiing, it’s even smaller. I’d say the community is very close. We all kind of know each other, and we’re all friends. I know my competitors, and there’s a sense of community and connection within that I really love and appreciate.
Especially here in Park City, Utah, which is a hub and community for both Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Being part of this community has been huge for me. It’s incredible to be surrounded by people who love the same sport, have really cool stories, and work together to make each other better.
If you’re comfortable, Saylor, I want to talk about mental health. You opened up about navigating depression in an Instagram post for Mental Health Awareness month, saying: “Mental health doesn’t disqualify you from excellence and excellence doesn’t exempt you from struggle.” What made you want to share your story?
O’Brien: In today’s world of sports, I’m starting to see more openness about mental health on the Paralympic side. Seeing that encourages me to say, “me too”.
Being at this top-level stage of high performance does not exempt us from feeling completely normal human things. I think that people forget that we’re not some kind of alien superheroes — we’re just humans. We’re just doing something that is incredibly physically exhilarating and demanding, but at the end of the day, we’re just human beings.
I really just wanted to share that within the ski community, because it is so small, and I don’t hear as many people talking about their mental health. It’s completely relevant, and I think more people should be talking about it. I have no shame in it. It’s normal.
Thank you for sharing that. What have you learned from facing this personally?
O’Brien: Over the last couple of months of figuring this out, I was also focusing on how I can be the best athlete that I can be while also still taking care of myself — the human before the athlete.
I think I’ve learned a lot about truly asking for help, and that it’s okay. You should ask for help. I’m so stoked and proud of myself for owning that and just saying, “Hey, I’m struggling. I need a little bit of support and assistance in this process.” I don’t want to do it by myself, and I don’t think that I should.
Historically, I’ve always wanted to do it independently. I didn’t want any help — not because I couldn’t figure it out on my own, but I just realized I have these resources. I’ve got people who care about me as an athlete and as a person, so why not use anything that I possibly can to make things feel better?
I’m so glad I did. Things feel a lot better, and I’m really stoked about this coming season and how I’m going to do. I’ve got such a huge team behind me.
What advice would you give to anyone who is struggling?
O’Brien: It would be to ask for help. There’s no shame in it. There’s such a huge stigma around [mental health]. Someone struggling might feel alone —and that’s how I did feel. I felt incredibly alone trying to figure it out.
But it was extremely helpful for me to go to someone, even if I didn’t really want their help. Sometimes, I just needed to say, “Hey, I need you to just listen to me for just a minute. I just need to talk to you and for you to hear me. I don’t want advice or support or help, or maybe I do in a [specific] way, depending on who it is.” But just to have people there to kind of witness and see you. That was a huge deal for me.
Given everything you’ve been through, what would qualifying for the 2026 Games mean to you?
O’Brien: It would be so amazing! It’ll be my first Games, if I were to qualify and go. I have been competing for the last 10 years. I started pretty young and was originally on the road to go to Beijing, but given how things were in the world, I needed more time. I knew that if I waited for another four years, I’d be a much better skier — and the Games are in Cortina, Italy. It’s such a beautiful place, and I love to ski there. It would be so amazing to finally get to there, especially after how long I’ve been working at this.
How are you feeling about your mental confidence?
O’Brien: I think that I’ve made a ton of progress in that area, but I’m still working on it to this very day. I don’t think you ever stop needing to work on it. It’s just one of those things that ebbs and flows. There are seasons where I feel really confident, and ones where I don’t.
I feel like I’ve made a ton of progress, especially within the last season and this offseason, especially with battling some mental health stuff. I feel really confident, and I’m really stoked. I feel like I can trust myself to just let my body do what it needs to do.
Who is Saylor outside of skiing? What are you passionate about outside of your sport?
O’Brien: Outside of skiing, I am an artist. I do a lot of acrylic painting as a passion, and I have sold some stuff. I use some of that to help with the financial costs of skiing as well. I love creating art. I love to paint. I’m in the process of learning how to become a tattoo artist. That is my dream career outside of skiing!
I love that! Saylor, what do you want people to take away from your journey so far?
O’Brien: I think it’s important to me to present a different and authentic personality. I hope it encourages people to embrace being different and to feel comfortable doing so. I try really hard to show that.
It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to look different. It’s okay to choose different things that people may disagree with. You’ve got one life, so be as authentic as you can. That is all I want from people, and that’s what I expect from myself.
Throughout the winter, in a series called Hometown Hopefuls, NBC is spotlighting the stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes from across the United States as they work towards the opportunity to represent their country at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. We’ll learn about their paths to their sports’ biggest stage, the communities that have been formative along the way, and the causes they’re committed to in their hometowns and around the world. Visit nbcsports.com/hometown-hopefuls for more stories on the road to Milan Cortina.
