Freedom is a motto which Josh Dueck lives by, and skiing has certainly given him the avenue to achieve freedom. Josh knew all along that his dream in life was to be a skier, and he actively pursued that passion, dedicating his life and career to skiing:
In March of 2004, Josh had a skiing accident. “I probably dropped from a hundred feet, and just slightly over-rotated,” says Josh, describing the details of his accident. This misjudgment resulted in him dislocating his back and damaging his spinal cord. Josh was paralyzed from the waist down due to this accident.
Josh recalls how the doctor motivated him in the emergency room that day, encouraging him that he is “going to be back in the mountain track [before he knows it] and sit ski.” Taking that motivation to heart, Josh also remembers calling his peers, saying:
“I want you guys to celebrate skiing for me. I want you guys to love it the way I loved it. There’s nothing to mourn here, because I’m going to be back. I promise you that.”
Josh kept his promise and found himself in sit skis “faster than some who would have turned around in ACL injury.”
In 2005, Josh learned how to ride the sit ski, and his skiing life once again took off. For the next 6 years, Josh participated in various championships, and emerged victorious in numerous events. He won the Canadian championships in the World Cup circuit in 2007. While he earned a spot in the 2008 World Cup circuit, he did not fare as well as he had hoped. Instead, over the summer of 2009, he diligently applied lessons that he had learned from that, and won the World Championships that very year. In the same year, he won the downhill event at Whistler.
These highs helped him smoothly get into the motion for the 2010 Winter Paralympics, earning him a silver medal for Canada. “My Paralympic experience was definitely the highlight of my athletic career,” he shares. The next year, Josh went on to win Monoskier X at the Winter X games.
Despite all these accomplishments, Josh does not plan on stopping. Rather, he desires to achieve more.
“There’s still something missing, you know. I’m not a ski racer, I’m a free skier. This is my dream, this is what I want to do, and I’m not going to be fully satisfied until I give an honest effort to it.”
Flying through the air at Chatter Creek, Snowcat Skiing Golden, Josh demonstrates how truly incredible he is at what he does. He makes riding down the steep snow mountains and leaping into the air seem so effortless, finishing each ride with a champion-like smile. “No matter what I’ve been through and how hard it is to erase memories of that day, nothing beats the feeling of flying through the air,” he shares. “To get to ski … in a place like this, it just doesn’t get any better.”
“Skiing’s everything. Everything. Holding on and staying true to what I love to do and to be a skier and to travel the world, to explore new places, and to explore myself through the medium of being a skier, it’s freedom.”