The Skier To Beat

Passing other cyclists on a steep curve, Sarah Billmeier '99 reaches the top of Oak Hill. Successfully negotiating a difficult uphill section on a mountain bike requires strength, balance, and, ordinarily, two legs. Billmeier has one. But the really impressive thing is, cycling isn't her sport. Skiing is.

Since capturing three gold medals in her first international disabled skiing competition, the 1992 Paralympics,

Billmeier has been the skier to beat internationally. A few hours after completing her freshman finals last fall, she left for Colorado to begin her fifth winter of training with the U. S. Disabled Ski Tearn to prepare for the Disabled Skiing World Championships in Lech, Austria.

Billmeier lost her left leg to cancer at the age of five. At age eight she took up skiing, and she was racing a year later. She joined the national team in 1990—just a year after Diana Golden '84 retired from disabled skiing. While Billmeier says she is grateful for all Golden did for the sport, she wishes the legendary disabled skier hadn't retired from competition so soon. "It really bummed me out," says Billmeier. "I wanted to beat her."

Worlds-bonnd Billmeier puts the lie to the term "disabled."