Press kit

01 · Bios

Approved bios

Copy and use as written. Third person, current as of October 2026.

Short · ~50 words

Tyler McKenzie is a para alpine ski racer on the U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team and the 2025–26 U.S. giant slalom national champion. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and originally from Leominster, Massachusetts, he rebuilt his life and his racing after a 2017 skiing crash tore the nerves of his left arm from his spine.

Medium · ~140 words

Tyler McKenzie is a standing para alpine skier (LW6/8-1) on the U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team and the 2025–26 U.S. giant slalom national champion. Raised in Leominster, Massachusetts, he raced at Proctor Academy and in NCAA Division I at Bates College, graduating in 2014, then moved to Salt Lake City.

On May 27, 2017, a skiing crash in Utah caused a complete brachial plexus avulsion of his left arm. After more than 24 hours of nerve-transfer surgery and a shoulder fusion, he was back on skis within a year. He raced his first para alpine event in 2019, made World Championships teams in 2022, 2023 and 2025, and in 2026 became the first Paralympian in Bates College history. He races with one pole and a rigid arm brace.

Long · ~290 words

Tyler McKenzie is a standing para alpine skier (LW6/8-1) on the U.S. Para Alpine Ski Team and the 2025–26 U.S. giant slalom national champion. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and trains with the National Ability Center in Park City.

Raised in Leominster, Massachusetts, McKenzie started skiing as a small child and racing soon after. He competed for Proctor Academy in New Hampshire and in NCAA Division I at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, graduating in 2014. After time in the East, he moved to Salt Lake City.

On May 27, 2017, while free skiing with friends in Utah, he hit wet snow, lost control and struck rocks and a tree. His helmet saved his life. The crash caused a complete brachial plexus avulsion: the nerve roots of his left arm were torn from his spinal cord. More than 24 hours of nerve-transfer surgery and a left shoulder fusion followed, and within a year he was back on skis.

At the National Ability Center, coach Erik Leirfallom invited him to a para alpine camp. He raced his first para alpine event in Winter Park, Colorado, in late 2019 and won the 2021 Para NorAm giant slalom season title. He broke his ankle at the 2022 World Championships, four weeks before the Beijing Games, and in 2023 chose open cervical spine surgery to end nearly six years of nerve pain. He won four Huntsman Cup NorAm races in 2023, earned full-time U.S. team status in 2025, raced the World Championships in Maribor, and in March 2026 made his Paralympic debut in Cortina, finishing 19th in giant slalom and 21st in super-G.

McKenzie mentors with the High Fives Foundation and the Adaptive Training Foundation. Off the snow he races bikes, camps, and trains with Nyx, his owner-trained service dog.