Scott Olson
Contributor | 2024
Hometown: Forest Lake, Minnesota
School Name: Courage Kenny Center and National Sports Center for the Disabled
Scott Olson served as a ski coach and instructor at the Courage Center in Minnesota, where he was the Volunteer of the Year in 1995. He was also recognized as the High School Coach of the Year in 2004 in Forest Lake, Minnesota.
In 2007, Scott moved to Winter Park, Colorado, to coach with the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD). He has been a coach, mentor and friend to so many athletes, from the developmental athlete to the Paralympic champion.
Once referred to as the “UN of ski racing,” Scott has represented many international athletes and countries at the Paralympic Games. He was the head coach for the Iceland Paralympic Ski Team at Vancouver in 2010, the head coach for the New Zealand Paralympic Ski Team at Sochi in 2014, and the head coach for the Israeli Paralympic Ski Team at Beijing in 2022. Scott would go on to be named the New Zealand Coach of the Year in 2012 and the U.S. Adaptive Domestic Coach of the Year in 2015. Olson has coached Paralympic Medalists Corey Peters and Adam Hall (2014, 2018 respectively).
In addition. Scott has made significant contributions through his involvement at The Hartford Ski Spectacular, a week-long winter adaptive sports event that has been held in Breckenridge, Colorado for more than three decades. He has been a staple at the Disabled American Veteran’s Winter Clinic since the late 1990’s and was selected as the DAV Instructor of the Year in 2005. Other awards he has received include the Order of Ikkos, a medallion award presented in 2010 in recognition of countless hours training America’s athletes to achieve the dream of a medal as well as the Outrigger Award for contributions to adaptive sport by the National Sports Center for the Disabled in 2022.
Since retiring from full-time coaching, Scott has continued to shape lives by creating custom sport seating at Aspen Seating. Over the course of more than 30 years in coaching and instructing skiers, he has worked with athletes from 17 countries and impacted the lives of thousands.
