Paralympic gold medalist says her disability is excluding her from upcoming games

(KUTV) — A Paralympic gold medalist said her disability is what is excluding her from the upcoming games.

Brenna Huckaby, 25, is not only a two-time snowboarding gold medalist, but a four-time world titleholder who said she has no way to compete in the upcoming Paralympics.

For the last year, she’s fought for the chance to compete in the Beijing Paralympic Games this March after a decision from the International Paralympic Committee barred her from competing.

In February 2021, the IPC notified Huckaby she wouldn’t be able to compete because they had cut her disability class from the games. The reason? They claimed not enough women signed up with her same level of disability for her to compete against.

Naturally, Huckaby wanted answers.

She said the snowboarding events for the Paralympics are broken up into two impairment groups.

“You have LL1, which is the more impaired disability, and then you have LL2 which is the less impaired leg disability,” she said.

Huckaby competes in the LL1 group, the more impaired class that the committee decided to cut from the Beijing games. She is a above-the-knee amputee who lost one of her legs to cancer years ago. Huckaby said she picked up competitive snowboarding in her teens.

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Initially, Huckaby was told she would still be able to compete against athletes with LL2 impairments. She explained this would be fair to the other athletes as she would be the one competing with the higher disadvantage.

Huckaby welcomed this option, as it would mean she was at least given that same opportunity to compete. However, the committee later decided against that.

They were also against allowing her to join the men’s competition made up of athletes with the same disability.

Huckaby hired a lawyer, and they’ve filed an injunction with the German courts because she still feels they have not given her a clear answer as to why she cannot compete.

“I knew this was wrong, and I knew I was going to fight for inclusion, equity and fairness,” she said.

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Huckaby said they expect a decision on the injunction Thursday. In the meantime, she competes for another world title in Norway.

After, she’ll head to Sweden and Canada for World Cup competitions.

The hashtag #Letbrennacompete is gaining traction online. She is not giving up hope to make it to Beijing and defend her gold medals and world titles.