The tall, lanky guy with the red beard looks unassuming and quiet, standing among his friends between disabled skiing races at Winter Park, Colo. But ask Ian Jansing, who has cerebral palsy, what his nickname is, and he responds with a wide grin.
“My teammates call me 'Crazy Train,'” he says, as though to lay any blame for the moniker on them. It's all a part of the comraderie for this Vancouver Paralympian in the Giant Slalom alpine event.
Jansing started skiing at the age of eleven with a team of able-bodies in St. Louis. A coach for his Hidden Valley team saw the promise and determination in the youngster, and told him about the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) in Winter Park, Colo.
At the center's Learn to Race camp for disabled skiing, Jansing felt totally accepted for the first time, so much so that he persuaded his family to move to the mountain town from their home in Ohio the next year. He didn't let the opportunity go to waste, finishing his studies early so he could start training full time.
Jansing works at the ski resort in winter and in summer at a nearby golf course, where he you can find him swinging a club in his time off. That got a little harder after a fall in his first European World Cup left him with a broken wrist and unable to complete the series.
But all of that is history with his Paralympic bid and future plans. Jansing wants to become a Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) certified ski instructor so that he can encourage others like someone once encouraged him.
