Chris Young
Competition | 2023
While serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, Chris Young was in a plane crash in Alaska that left him paralyzed. In 1986, Chris began adaptive skiing at the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic as a “four-tracker” stand up skier with outriggers. In 1989, he was named to the U.S. Disabled Ski Team would remain a member of the national team for 28 years, retiring in 2016.
Devlin-Young is a five-time Paralympian, earning four medals. At the 1994 Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway, he won a gold medal in slalom. He would win another gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Paralympic Games in Super G, becoming the first Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two different categories (Standing/Sitting). Overall, Chris won five World Club Globes and 27 World Cup podiums. In fact, Ski Racer Magazine named Devlin-Young the 2003 and 2004 Disabled Skier of the Year.
Among his many other titles and wins, Young was the first disabled athlete (sitting) to compete in the U.S. Free Ski and Snow board Championships and to compete with an abled-bodied team at the World Synchronized Ski Championship. In 2005, Chris won the ESPN X Games Mono skier X Gold and did so again in 2015, becoming the oldest X Games Gold Medalist.
Chris Young has also gone on to coach a number of adaptive athletes and Paralympians. He coached the NEDS Disabled Ski Team/Loon from 1995 to 1997, mentoring teenagers including Tyler Walker and Laurie Stephens who later joined him as winning members of the US Disabled Ski Team. Recently, he was elected to the board of directors of US Ski and Snowboard and named the chairman of the Para Sport Committee. He has been a collaborator and consultant with just about every sit-ski designer as well as other companies. He has been a Test and Development Driver and part of the multi-discipline team at Toyota Racing Development. In 2010, Chris Young was inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame.
