ASPEN — Kaitlyn Farrington calls it the most terrifying two minutes in her life.
After a seemingly trivial crash she typically would have laughed off, the professional halfpipe snowboarder lost all feeling below her neck. While sensation returned, that crash — during a photo shoot in Austria last spring — triggered a chain of events that would force the Olympic gold medalist to abandon her career at its apex.
Two weeks later, a spinal specialist delivered the worst news of the 25-year-old’s life. An MRI revealed a degenerative condition in her spine — congenital cervical stenosis. Her spinal column is narrowing. The doctor was blunt: You can’t ever snowboard again.
She went to other doctors. Each one told her the same thing: She was incredibly lucky she walked away in Austria.
“If this happens again, there is a really good chance you won’t pop up again, and you will be a paraplegic,” Farrington said Thursday of her conversations with doctors.
The news came a mere 10 months from her loftiest moment: .
It was a whirlwind for the Idaho farm girl whose family sold cows to fund her snowboarding career. She had locked in her spot on the U.S. Olympic team in the fifth and final qualifying contest.
Then she won bronze at last year’s X Games and two weeks later was an Olympic gold medalist. Her ecstatic parents waved a sign reading “Cowboy Up!” at the bottom of the Russian pipe.
“It was definitely a high high in my life and then to wrap it up at the end of the year with a really low low,” Farrington said. “There was so much success, and then all the sudden I find out it will never happen again. It was just a weird, bittersweet moment. Everyone’s joking with me, saying, ‘Well, at least you are going out on top.’ “
Looking back, Farrington said she “gave it a good run.”
“I made every goal I wanted to achieve as a snowboarder,” she said. “I would love to have gone to the next Olympics and defend my gold, but I don’t have that opportunity.”
Farrington is in Aspen this week to watch her friends compete in the halfpipe. She will drape medals on the top three from the women’s halfpipe contest Saturday night in what will certainly rank as one of the sport’s most emotional moments.
She’s hoping to keep snowboarding. Only she can’t leave the ground. She’s thinking of riding more backcountry.
“I’m grounded. I have to be careful,” Farrington said. “I really don’t want to leave the sport. All my best friends are doing it. I’m not ready to back out fully yet.”
