Kate Delson Won Paralympic Gold at 20. The Park City Snowboarder Calls Utah Home

Kate Delson won the women's SB-LL2 banked slalom at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games on Friday, March 13, 2026, at the Cortina Para Snowboard Park. Her best run of 1:02.99 beat the Netherlands' Lisa Bunschoten-Vos by a little over half a second, FIS reported, and her U.S. teammate Brenna Huckaby took bronze.

It was her first Paralympics, and her second medal of the week. U.S. Ski & Snowboard said she was the youngest athlete on the U.S. team at 20.

"Now we get to stand on the Paralympic podium together. It's the best thing ever," she said of sharing the podium with Huckaby, in U.S. Ski & Snowboard's release.

Silver first, after a fall

Five days earlier, on March 8, Delson raced the snowboard cross. She was taken out in her semifinal by Japan's Eri Sakashita and kept going to finish second and reach the final, U.S. Ski & Snowboard reported. In the final she pushed France's Cécile Hernandez, the defending champion, into the last bends and took silver, with China's Xinyu Wang third.

"I've got a smile on my face right now!" she said afterward.

The banked slalom had been moved a day earlier because of the weather, FIS noted. Bunschoten-Vos's second run took the lead from Delson by two-tenths of a second, and Delson answered with her 1:02.99, FIS reported.

From the slopes of Mammoth Lakes

U.S. Ski & Snowboard and Team USA list her hometown as San Diego, California. She started skiing at 3 and switched to snowboarding at 6 at Mammoth Lakes, the Park Record reported, and the Deseret News reported that she played soccer and tennis growing up in California.

Team USA describes her impairment as a congenital disability causing significant muscle weakness in multiple muscles of her right leg, and lists her classification as LL2, for lower-limb impairments.

In August the Deseret News, covering Utah 2034's support for Utah Youth Sports Giving Day, reported her describing how sport had given her a kind of confidence she could not find in other activities, even while moving differently from her peers. Read more on that event.

Team USA says she won her first Para competition at a Europa Cup in Finland, and that she placed third in her age group in slopestyle at Junior Nationals at Copper Mountain as the only Para athlete in the field. She attended Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley, California, by the same profile. The Park Record reported that she was ninth in the World Cup rankings at 18, in 2024.

Based in Park City

Delson has been based in Utah since November 2023 and moved to Park City, the Park Record reported. She trains at the U.S. team's Center of Excellence in Park City, works at the National Ability Center at Quinn's Junction and rides at Woodward Park City, by the same account, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists her club as Team Utah Snowboarding. TownLift, covering her gold, described her as riding for Team Utah.

KPCW reported that she was the youngest member of the U.S. team when she was named to it in May 2025.

A season that won the globe

Her 2025-26 World Cup season set up the Games. At Big White, Canada, she won both snowboard cross races and the mixed team event with Joe Pleban, and clinched the Lower Limb snowboard cross and overall titles, FIS reported on Feb. 2, 2026. At the Steamboat Springs finale in February she was second twice in banked slalom behind Bunschoten-Vos.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard says she won all three Crystal Globes that season. Its count of her career stands at seven World Cup wins and 17 World Cup podiums.

The year before, she won World Cup races at Lenk, Switzerland, and Steamboat Springs and finished second in the world rankings, Team USA says, and at the 2025 World Championships at Big White she was second in snowboard cross, sixth in banked slalom and fourth in the mixed team snowboard cross. Going into the Games, the IPC counted five World Cup wins for her since November.

Her record

• Paralympics: banked slalom gold and snowboard cross silver, Milano Cortina 2026
• World Cup: seven wins and 17 podiums; 2025-26 overall and Lower Limb snowboard cross titles
• World Championships: snowboard cross silver, 2025
• Team status: 2026-27 U.S. Para Snowboard Team, A team

The 2026-27 season

U.S. Ski & Snowboard named Delson to the A team of the 2026-27 U.S. Para Snowboard Team on Oct. 9, 2026. The FIS calendar opens the World Cup with banked slalom at Landgraaf, Netherlands, on Nov. 26-27, 2026, then moves to Bardonecchia, Italy, Lenk, Switzerland, and Kühtai, Austria, in January, before Steamboat and Big White in March. The World Championships follow at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, on March 16-22, 2027. The Park Record reported she also plans to enter some slopestyle events this season.

For more Utah winter athletes, see the Utah 2034 Olympics hub.

Key facts:

• Athlete: Kate Delson, Para snowboard (LL2), 2026-27 U.S. Para Snowboard Team A team
• Hometown: San Diego, California; Utah-based since November 2023, now in Park City; club Team Utah Snowboarding
• Paralympic gold: banked slalom SB-LL2, March 13, 2026, best run 1:02.99
• Paralympic silver: snowboard cross SB-LL2, March 8, 2026
• World Cup: 2025-26 overall and Lower Limb snowboard cross titles; seven career wins
• Age at the Games: 20, the youngest on the U.S. team
• Next: World Cup opener, Landgraaf, Netherlands, Nov. 26-27, 2026