“The Girl That Snowboards”: How snowboarding saved Brittani Coury

Team USA Paralympic snowboarder Brittani Coury opens up about growing up with gender-based discrimination and how snowboarding saved her life.

March 2022 signifies a historic moment for women in sports: March is Women’s History Month, and 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

It’s also the month in which the 2022 Paralympics Games took place in Beijing, spanning from March 3 to March 14. One of the athletes in attendance was Team USA’s Brittani Coury, a Paralympic snowboarder who participated in the Banked Slalom and Snowboardcross events.

A silver medalist in PyeongChang 2018, the 35-year-old snowboarding champion was a member of Team Citi as a part of their #StareAtGreatness campaign.

The campaign, which seeks to “help change perceptions of people with disabilities”, wants to change the conversation about staring at athletes with disabilities. Staring doesn’t have to have a negative connotation when at a world-class Paralympic athlete and admiring what they do. According to Citi, staring at greatness is “pivotal to creating an inclusive society,” and there’s more to the Team Citi roster than meets the eye.

Behind every athlete is their story, and Brittani’s story is the story of climbing an uphill battle to reach victory at the finish line. Brittani has been fighting battles against COVID as a registered nurse, working on the front lines to give back to the community that supports her Paralympic aspirations.

But before Brittani beamed as a proud RN and Paralympic medalist, she endured a difficult upbringing with her brother and sister in Aztec, NM. Growing up in what she described as a “very anti-female household”, Brittani reflected on her journey to self-love by way of the board. On the quiet mountain snowbanks, Brittani’s mind was absorbed by balancing and gliding on the snow instead of low feelings of self-esteem. “It was a place of freedom for me,” she said.

When she found an identity as “the girl who snowboards”, Brittani grew into herself, but a snowboarding accident in 2003 caused her to develop bone spurs in her right ankle. She had her ankle amputated in 2006, but she learned to adapt to para-snowboarding and continued to board as an adult.

Below is Brittani’s story about how snowboarding saved her life and created a place for her as a woman in the world.

“I was raised in a very anti-female household. My mother had no problem telling me from a small age that she only wanted boys. I was raised on a wrecking yard and a farm and homeschooled, so I was constantly trying to get approval from my mother to love me. But that was really never there just because I wasn’t born a boy, and so, I had really poor self-esteem and so many insecurities and a feeling of just… that I wasn’t worth anything. I felt like a piece of garbage. Pretty much my whole [time] growing up.  

I was told that girls don’t go to school, girls don’t travel. Everything I was told us was what limitations in the roles we had versus my brother, who had opportunities to do everything. And so when I started snowboarding, it was a place of freedom for me. It was a place where I could kind of escape my mental mindset that I wasn’t worth anything or I wasn’t worthy as a person. The first time I put a snowboard on my feet, that feeling of liberation, just being out in nature and focusing on staying upright on a snowboard—I wasn’t thinking about how inadequate or how I wasn’t wanted or how much I didn’t measure up to my brother or other men. 

I remember in high school, there was a girl, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m Brittani Coury,’ and she’s like, ‘Oh, you’re the girl that snowboards,’ and I remember that association was being known for something positive as being a girl that was good at snowboarding. It kind of changed my life because I finally had something of value that I was worth, and snowboarding gave that to me. And so I pursued it and snowboarded as much as I could because I went from having no self-esteem and so many inadequacies to being associated with the girl snowboarder that could keep up with the guys and it just was addicting to me and it gave me a positive self-esteem. 

And throughout this whole process, even losing the foot and all of that, the snowboarding…people don’t understand how I could have snowboarded on the ankle that I had before, but I had so much emotional pain, and snowboarding took that emotional pain away, and so the physical pain I was feeling from my ankle masked that emotional pain. I was able to compartmentalize the physical pain, because I could deal with physical pain, but I couldn’t deal with emotional pain. And so snowboarding totally took that away. 

For me, I think it’s really important for adolescent girls or men or whoever who had this negative association: the color of their skin, the gender that they were born—and I have a gap in my teeth—the color of your eyes, you can’t change that. But if you can find something that helps fill that void, I think that’s super important in our culture. 

I have been given a nephew, and for me, being an auntie, I hope that they… I walk around with force and I hold my head with pride, and I hope that you feel all of this if anything, they can have a positive self-esteem, and know that they have value and worth in this world. 

If it wasn’t for snowboarding, I really don’t know where I would be. I honestly don’t know if I would still be here. Snowboarding saved my life and gave me a sense of identity that was positively associated with being a woman. And I just love being a woman in the sport. It’s amazing.”

The path to Beijing wasn’t easy: Brittani overcame many injuries while she prepared for the Games, and she experienced an injury the day before the Banked Slalom event. Still, she competed, placing fifth in Snowboardcross and ninth in Banked Slalom. Though her dream was to make the podium with her best friend, 2022 gold and silver medalist Brenna Huckaby, Brittani is going home with her head held high for fighting through the race.

Throughout her life, people have looked at Brittani and tried to impose their own limitations on her. Brittani doesn’t let them.

“Your limitation is your own reality — I don’t consider myself disabled,” she said.

“I would get stared at as a nurse as well, but again that why I love Stare At Greatness. Because yes, stare at me. I’m saving lives, and I’m also a Paralympian.”

Why We Play features stories about the power of sports to bring us together, overcome obstacles, make positive change and reach everyone. Read more here.