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So to be headed into my second Paralympics.
Growing up as a kid who people may have laughed at the idea of, you know, wanting to be a professional athlete it's a good feeling for sure.
You know, and it's a testament to the fact that, no matter what, if you have a goal and you work hard enough and you go for it, you make the sacrifices and you never give up and you just find a way, you'll be surprised what you can do.
The Olympics may be over, but the Paralympic Games are just getting underway in Italy.
And among the athletes competing is Zach Miller, a 26-year-old para snowboarder from Colorado with cerebral palsy, who has been in five world championships and won seven medals, including two gold.
He's also an athlete mentor for classroom champions.
And just before the games got underway, he joined me here on Kid News Convos for a fantastic conversation about what it's like to compete at the games, how much training is required and his favorite post-workout snack.
Hey, Zach, thanks for joining me.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
As we're recording this, you're still a few days away from the competition starting.
So how are you feeling?
Are you excited?
Are you nervous?
What's it like?
I would say there's a few emotions at play right now.
I don't know if it's like fully hit yet, you know, that like I'm going to the games.
When I got the news that you know I'd qualified for the team and that I was going to go to me, it was a big weight off of my shoulders because our team, our sport really, of Paris snowboarding, we wait until the last possible minute to pick our Paralympic team.
And so when I originally got that phone call, it was like, okay, made it.
But yeah, now that I'm here, it just kind of feels like a regular trip right now.
I think the excitement and kind of anxiety of it is starting to build a little bit.
I feel like once we show up to team processing and we get to do the, you know, the Team USA welcome experience, we get sized for our you know, Olympic opening ceremonies, closing ceremonies gear, all that stuff.
I think that's when it'll really just like fully drive it home that I am at the Paralympic Games.
It's happening.
But you participated in the last Paralympic Games in Beijing, right?
In 2022.
But you had recently been injured.
So tell us about that experience.
Yes, this is my second Games.
The Beijing Paralympics in 2022 was my first Paralympic experience.
Kind of bittersweet.
Obviously, it's a huge achievement to make it to the Paralympic Games.
Whenever it's your first time, it's just, there's a lot that happens, right?
Yeah, headed into that Games, I had a pretty significant lower back injury.
Had to do a pretty crazy medical procedure just to be able to get there and compete.
It didn't go well.
I really didn't place how I wanted to.
And so going into this Games, I was really excited to be riding at the level that I know I can.
Beijing being my first experience was great to be a Paralympian, but it was during COVID.
You know, it was while the whole world was shut down.
So it was not really any kind of traditional games experience.
We had no crowds.
My family couldn't come.
There was testing constantly and there was just a lot of stuff we had to deal with.
This time around, it's like a real games experience.
You know, my My parents are already there.
They're going to be flying over pretty soon.
This will be the first time that I've actually come across the finish line to a huge crowd.
We actually, our event is sold out now.
So I'm having tons of people, even other athletes on other teams, asking if I have any extra tickets, because I think that's how excited people are to watch our sport.
And so I just can't wait kind of for that, that experience of getting through the finish line and just everybody being there, the cheering, the cowbells, the music.
Yeah.
It's just going to be it's going to be great.
So I'm really looking forward to it.
Oh, my gosh.
I'd like I want to be there.
You know, it sounds so exciting.
So I'm just curious, how much training do you do for this event?
Is it a full time job or do you just fit it in when you can with the rest of your life?
Oh, absolutely.
This is a full-time job.
I would be... I'm very impressed with the athletes that do also do some side jobs.
I think a lot of Paralympians and also Olympians as well.
There's a lot of us that are finding extra ways to just kind of build in some extra income because man, these sports are expensive.
For me, it's a full-time job because of the training that's involved.
If I'm not on snow, I'm in the gym.
If I'm not on snow or in the gym, then I'm at home doing some kind of recovery.
And then, if I'm not doing any of those three things, I'm usually either doing some public speaking, going to different schools, sharing my story, or I'm doing anything else to kind of raise funds for our team or for myself to be able to afford this.
You know, traveling the world's expensive.
The equipment that we use is very expensive.
I don't even have the issue of having to deal with prosthetic costs because I just have cerebral palsy.
But a lot of the athletes you know all the athletes on my team save one.
They all have prosthetic legs and those have parts and expenses associated with them.
And so you definitely have to balance it.
It's really just easy for me to remind myself whenever I do get overwhelmed that, like man, what a blessing to be overwhelmed by the life that I wished for and prayed for as a kid, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you were born with cerebral palsy.
Can you explain to our listeners, who might not know exactly what that is and how it impacts your life?
Of course.
So the easiest way that I like to explain my disability, cerebral palsy is especially if you know someone who's ever had a stroke, it's very similar to that.
Basically, what happens is in the womb during fetal development before I'm born.
I had my brain damaged.
And the part of my brain that received all this damage is the part that controls my muscles.
And so when that part of your brain is the one that's damaged, it ends up with you being born originally pretty healthy and okay.
But as I started to get older, my parents and my grandparents noticed that I wasn't acting like a regular baby.
They noticed I wasn't holding my head up independently.
I wouldn't really track things with my eyes.
And so when we went to the hospital, we found out it was because those muscles hadn't developed yet, or they weren't developing.
So for me, the most important thing was getting an early diagnosis and making sure I was in the hospital immediately getting treatment tons of physical therapy.
Something I always really disliked about my disability was how much time it pulled me away from my friends growing up.
You know, we'd go to school and my friends would make plans for after school.
I couldn't do that because I had to go to the hospital and get some extra physical therapy done.
But i will say it's been kind of a blessing in disguise.
My disability has taught me a lot about life, taught me how to be resilient, taught me how to deal with, you know, extra challenges and maybe the feeling of not fitting in um, and just yeah, making sure that like, i take care of myself, of my body, and that i can still do the things that i want to do right, which for me, was become a professional athlete.
So to be headed into my second paralympics, You know, growing up as a kid who people may have laughed at the idea of you know, wanting to be a professional athlete, it's a good feeling, for sure, you know, and it's a testament to, you know, the fact that, no matter what you know, if you have a goal and you work hard enough and you go for it, you make the sacrifices I mean, you never give up and you just find a way, you'll be surprised what you can do.
Well, I did read you told Olympics.com you try to scare yourself at least once a day.
So you continue to push those boundaries.
As a mom, that makes me nervous.
Yeah, it makes my mom nervous too.
Don't worry.
Yeah, to me, it sounds a bit silly when you first say it.
You should scare yourself at least once a day.
But the overall message, the point is that you've got to be testing your boundaries.
Like you've got to be pushing your limits.
If you always stay where you are most comfortable, then you never have an opportunity for growth.
But if you're trying new things and it doesn't have to be scary as in risky, it can just be scary as in something you've never tried before.
It could be trying a new hobby or talking to someone that you haven't talked to before.
That can lead to relationships and circumstances that you never would have found yourself in otherwise.
And even if they don't work out, that's okay.
But sometimes they can lead to some incredible things and you can find yourself in a new place.
That can be really exciting.
We're going to take a quick break.
And when we come back, Zach talks about kids asking him the best questions, how his favorite subject in school has helped his success on the slopes and why he describes himself as a huge nerd.
More Kid News Convos right after this.
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And we're back with Kid News Convos.
I'm Tori, talking with Paralympic snowboarder Zach Miller, getting ready for the Games in Italy.
Zach, I mentioned at the top you're an athlete mentor for classroom champions.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, the classroom champions program is definitely a big deal to me.
It's been really cool over the course of this season to not just interact with some really cool kids that, by the way, ask better questions than most like reporters and journalists that I've been dealing with all season.
Kids just ask the fun questions, so I always love interacting with them.
But I think what's more important especially about that program, is some of the subjects that it addresses.
I was really excited to be a part of the Classroom Champions program in the community because I think that some of the lessons and the topics that are addressed in that curriculum can be really big for kids that are in a phase of life where there's a lot of uncertainty and where you're just trying to figure out where you fit in and what to do and what decisions and choices to make from a day-to-day basis.
Can you share some of the favorite questions you've been asked?
Well, yeah, just the fun ones, you know, like one kid asked me what my favorite food was.
And I will say, if you ask that question to most elite level athletes, they are most of the time not going to come back with anything that's healthy.
You know, my answer is cookie dough.
I love cookie dough.
I want it all the time.
Obviously, I don't eat a ton of cookie dough.
But to me, it's a big, you know, it's a great sweet treat and reward after a long day of training.
And you describe yourself as quite a nerd.
Is that right, extremely.
I think a lot of people would see me kind of face value and be like okay, i get it, he's like a jock that's obsessed with speed.
But then yeah, if you just take a quick tour of my house um, there's lego sets everywhere, i have a steam deck, i have nintendo switch.
You know, i love to play video games in my spare time.
When i have it, i brought a set of dnd dice with me to the games um, just in case um, we end up, you know, running a quick dnd campaign while we're there yeah, and then like just, even when it comes to my sport one of the coolest things uh, about my sport some of the physics and the, the math that's at play um, and the science that goes into our snowboards, the construction of them, how different flex patterns change the way a snowboard turns and the radius of that, and how We make our wax call, based on the temperature of the snow combined with the ambient temperature, combined with what's been in the sun versus in the shade.
I mean, you could spend all day just talking about how scientific my sport gets.
And science was my favorite subject in school.
So any final advice for kids who might have some aspirations, you know, to follow their dreams?
Yeah, there's a lot of things I've been reminding myself of, especially that we head into the games about what, to me, has been the most important thing in my career and in my life.
Obviously, I want to be remembered as a competitor.
I want to be a guy who, when he shows up on snow and to a World Cup or a competition that you say to yourself all right well, I guess I'm fighting for second right.
But the most important legacy to me is... being kind of a positive member of like my community.
It's about uplifting my sport and my teammates and the people that I interact with, about looking at the people that I race against not, as you know, adversaries or enemies, but as as competitors.
And one of the things that I really want to focus on, especially mentally going into these games, is to have fun and just enjoy the fact that I did make it to exactly where I want to be.
That's awesome.
Well, all the best to you.
When do you start your competition?
A good question.
So unfortunately, I will be missing opening ceremonies because I qualify the next day.
So March 7th, we are qualifying.
March 8th, I'll be racing in border cross.
That one is definitely one to tune in for.
And then I think we have Bank Slalom, if I can check it quickly, on the 14th.
Yes.
So I race the 8th and the 14th.
If you want to watch my sport, but I mean during the entire Paralympic Games, it'll just be a good idea to tune in, no matter what.
There's going to be a lot of really cool sports on display.
So all those families and kids at home, tune in because it's going to be really exciting.
And I'm sure you're going to learn a lot about the Paralympic movement and our sports that we do and how exciting they are.
I think it's fabulous and you're an amazing spokesperson for it.
We certainly wish you all the best.
Absolutely.
And thank you for listening to Kid News Convos.
If you have comments on this episode or suggestions for another Convos topic, please send us an email at wehearyouatkidnewsorg.
Have a great weekend.
We hope you tune in for our next regular Kid News podcast every weekday morning.
