Jonathan Lujan

Last updated

Jonathan Lujan
Jonathan Lujan.JPG
2013 World Championships La Molina Spain, Slalom
Personal information
Nationality American
Born (1971-02-21) February 21, 1971 (age 53)
Denver, Colorado
Height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight190 lb (86.2 kg)
Sport
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Sport Paralympic Alpine skiing
Medal record
Representing Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Paralympic Alpine Skiing
US National Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2012 Aspen CO Downhill standing
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2012 Aspen CO Super Giant Slalom Standing
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2012 Waterville Valley NH Giant Slalom Standing
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2013 Winter Park CO Super Giant Slalom Standing

Jonathan Lujan (born February 21, 1971) is a Paralympic alpine skier from the United States.

Lujan grew up in Littleton, Colorado before joining the United States Marine Corps in 1993 and was honorable discharged in 1997, where he returned to Colorado to become more active in parenting his young daughter Emily. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, he re-enlisted in the Marine Corps and was subsequently deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the initial ground war Lujan was injured while riding in the rear of a vehicle and suffered two ruptured discs in his lower back. Complications from the surgery resulted in paralysis of his lower legs. [1] He was medically retired from the Marine Corps in 2006 due to those injuries.

In 2008 Lujan attended the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic [2] where he was introduced to ski racing by a ski coach named Scott Olson. [3] He spent the next 3 years skiing part-time for the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colorado. Realizing that if he wanted to be more competitive he needed to ski full-time, in 2011 Lujan quit his job and moved to Aspen, Colorado to ski for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club (AVSC). In his first year racing full-time Lujan won two National Championship titles in Downhill and Super Giant Slalom on his home hill in Aspen. [4]

He also was the bronze medalist in US Nationals in Giant Slalom [5] and also took home another gold and two silvers at NORAM races.

In 2012 he was named to the 2012–2013 US Paralympic National B Team [6] and also competed at the 2013 World Championships in La Molina, Spain. [7]

Lujan was the Runner up for the 2012–2103 Super Giant Slalom National Championship, and took home two more silver medals in NORAM competitions in North America.

Lujan was named to the 2013–2014 US Paralympic National B Team, [8] and was a member of the 2014 Winter Paralympics US alpine skiing team. [9] Lujan also writes a blogs about his experiences as a professional athlete on the Team USA website as a winter athlete. [10] Lujan is represented by Heather Novikis of Octagon Action Sports. [11]

Related Research Articles

Sandra "Sandy" Dukat is an American Paralympic athlete. Born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, she had her right leg amputated above the knee at the age of four. She has competed internationally in alpine skiing, swimming and triathlon. As of February 2013, she holds the marathon world record for above-knee amputee women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Para-alpine skiing</span> Skiing for people with disabilities

Paralympic alpine skiing is an adaptation of alpine skiing for athletes with a disability. The sport evolved from the efforts of disabled veterans in Germany and Austria during and after the Second World War. The sport is governed by the International Paralympic Committee Sports Committee. The primary equipment used includes outrigger skis, sit-skis, and mono-skis. Para-alpine skiing disciplines include the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, super combined, and snowboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Devlin-Young</span> American para-alpine skier

Christopher Devlin-Young is an American alpine ski racer and two time Paralympic Champion, who resides in Campton, New Hampshire. He competes as a monoskier in the LW 12–1 class.

Cara Dunne-Yates was an American paralympian, lawyer, and advocate. She was a Paralympic medalist in both winter and summer sports. She was Harvard-educated, and the only disabled First Marshall of any major university. She was also a UCLA-educated lawyer (1997), who was the first to legally fight the Law School Admission Council in order to make them use a Braille examination format of the LSAT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heath Calhoun</span> American alpine skier (born 1979)

Heath Calhoun is an American alpine skier and veteran of the United States Army, who achieved the rank of staff sergeant. A double-leg amputee due to injuries received in the Iraq War, Calhoun uses a sit-ski in competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Santacana Maiztegui</span> Spanish para-alpine skier

Jon Santacana Maiztegui is a Spanish B2 classified visually impaired para-alpine skier. His sighted ski guide is Miguel Galindo Garces. Santacana has competed at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, in the European Cup and the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup, and Spanish national competitions. He represented Spain at the 2002 Winter Paralympics, 2006 Winter Paralympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics, earning a gold medal and a pair of silver medals at the 2010 Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Galindo Garcés</span> Spanish alpine skier and para-alpine sighted guide

Miguel Galindo Garcés is a Spanish alpine skier, and para-alpine sighted guide. As Jon Santacana's guide, he competed at the 2002 Winter Paralympics where he earned three medals. He also competed in the European Cup, the World Cup, the World Championships and a national team camp with Santacana.

Marty Mayberry is a double leg amputee LW3 classified Paralympic alpine skier from Australia. Mayberry lost both legs after contracting meningococcal disease when he was sixteen years old. This experiences led him to study medicine, and he attended Griffith University and the University of Sydney where Mayberry pursued health science courses. Beyond the classroom, he has written a paper on meningococcal disease, worked part-time on research about the disease, and talked about his experiences at a conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LW2 (classification)</span> Disability skiing classification

LW2 is a para-alpine and para-Nordic standing ski sport class defined by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Competitors in this class have severe disability in a lower limb, which may be a result of an amputation, or arthrodesis in the leg and hip. Depending on the type of skiing, the international classification process for LW2 skiers is handled by the IPC Alpine Skiing Technical Committee and IPC Nordic Skiing Technical Committee. National sport federations handle classification on the lower levels.

LW3 is a para-alpine and para-Nordic standing skiing sport class defined by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for skiers with a disability affecting both legs, with double below knee amputation or a combined strength total for both legs of 60, with 80 as the baseline for people without disabilities. For international skiing competitions, classification is done through IPC Alpine Skiing or IPC Nordic Skiing. The classification has two subclasses for para-alpine skiing: LW3.1 which is for people with double below the knee amputations or similar disabilities, and LW3.2 which is for people with cerebral palsy that involves moderate athetoid, moderate ataxic impairment or slight diplegic involvement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitchell Gourley</span> Australian Paralympic alpine skier

Mitchell Gourley is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier who competed for Australia in the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined events at four Winter Paralympics - 2010 to 2022. He was Australian team co-captain with Joany Badenhorst at the 2018 Winter Paralympics. At the 2022 Winter Paralympics, he and Melissa Perrine carried the Australian flag in the opening ceremony. At the 2017 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy he won the gold medal in the men's Super Combined Standing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Soyer</span> Australian para-alpine skier

Mark Soyer is an Australian para-alpine LW11 classified skier. He dealt with leukaemia twice as a child. At the age of 26, he severed his spinal cord during an accident while riding his motorbike on his parents' farm, and subsequently tried several different sports. Working as a manufacturing jeweller and gemologist in Melbourne, he has also been involved with para-skiing as a volunteer, and serving in administrative roles for various organisations. In 2007, he was a finalist for the Pride of Australia awards for courage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Pendergast</span> Australian F58 athletics shot put competitor (born 1991)

Victoria "Tori" Pendergast is an Australian F58 athletics shot put competitor and LW12.1 classified Para-alpine skier. When she competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, she became Australia's first female sit skier at the Winter Paralympics. She competed in two events, finishing seventh in women's slalom sit-ski and tenth in the women's giant slalom sit-ski. She also won a silver and a bronze medal in the slalom and super-G at the 2013 North America Cup, and a bronze medal in the giant slalom at the 2013 IPC World Cup in Thredbo.

Andrés Paulo Boira Díaz is a Spanish vision impaired B3 classified para-alpine skier. His guide skiers have included Félix Aznar and Aleix Suñé. He has competed at the 2006 Winter Paralympics, 2009 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships and the 2010 Winter Paralympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Gorce</span> Spanish para-alpine skier

Gabriel Juan Gorce Yepes is a visually impaired Spanish B2 classified para-alpine skier. He has had several guide skiers including Aleix Suñé, Félix Aznar and Arnau Ferrer. He competed in the European Cup and the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup, at the 2009 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships 2011 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships and the 2010 Winter Paralympics. He was also a competitor in the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Félix Aznar is a Spanish skier who has served as para-alpine guide for Paralympic skiers including Andrés Boira and Gabriel Gorce. He skied with Gorce at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. He has competed in the European Cup and the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup as a guide skier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Schaffelhuber</span> German para-alpine skier

Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber is a German para-alpine skier. At the 2014 Winter Paralympics she won five gold medals, becoming only the second athlete to sweep the alpine skiing events.

Michael Brennan is a British alpine skier. Brennan lost both his lower legs in a bomb attack whilst serving in the British army in Iraq in 2004. His rehabilitation saw him first attempt to compete in the Summer Paralympics in Beijing before switching to alpine ski sports. In 2014 he qualified for the Great Britain team for the Winter Paralympics in Sochi as a sit-skier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Whitley (alpine skier)</span> British alpine skier

James Whitley is a British alpine skier, who competes in the slalom, giant slalom SuperG, Downhill and Super Combined events. A promising junior skier, Whitley qualified to represent Great Britain's team at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi for his debut Paralympics. In January 2018 it was announced by BPA and PSGB (ParaSnowSportsGB) that Whitley had been selected to compete in Pyeongchang in the 2018 Winter Paralympics. In February 2022, Whitley was named by the BPA as part of the ParalympicsGB squad for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics.

Hilmi Esat Bayındırlı, also known as Erik Bayindirli, is a Turkish-American Paralympic alpine skier, who competes in the LW11 disability class of mostly men's giant slalom, sitting event. He represented United States at the 2006 Winter Paralympics and Turkey at the 2014 Winter Paralympics. A trained jeweller, he was paralyzed below the chest following a car accident in his youth.

References

  1. "Veterans Go for the Gold at Sochi Paralympic Games". ABC News. March 7, 2014.
  2. National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic Winter Sports Clinic
  3. The Backbone of the Winter Sports Clinic NDVWSC 2008 p.25
  4. "Aspen Business Journal".
  5. "Canada and USA Battle for Victory at NORAM Cup and Nationals". International Paralympic Committee.
  6. US Paralympic Alpine Skiing National Teams named Team USA
  7. "US Paralympics selects team for La Molina". International Paralympic Committee.
  8. US Paralympic Alpine Skiing National Teams named Team USA
  9. Profile Archived 2014-05-02 at the Wayback Machine 2014 Winter Paralympics
  10. Jon Lujan Team USA
  11. "Olympics & Action Sports". Octagon. August 24, 2016.