Sports Illustrated - USA (2022-02)

F 6

erecting walls, installing sheetrock and f looring, finish-
ing the exterior, building a pond out of bricks and putting
in garden beds. There is some irony in working that hard
to build a place where other people can relax, but Kurka
explains it simply: “I love projects, man.”
Kurka probably does not have a lot of competitive skiing
left in him, but he does have a lot of plans. He is engaged
to Verónica Quezada, whom he met on a Mexican vacation
a few years ago, and they hope to start a family. That will
give him another reason to manage his fearlessness. He
has dabbled in hand-cycling and is thinking of taking it
more seriously because “I’m trying to shift over as I age
to a sport that’s a little bit less dangerous.”
In the meantime he is training for Beijing. After win-
ning a gold in downhill and a silver in Super-G in his
classification four years ago, he is a threat to take home
multiple medals again. He could race in the downhill, the
Super-G, the giant slalom and the super combined, but he
plans to stay away from the slalom, where the gates are
closer together than in the giant slalom. In the slalom,
he says, “Sit-skiers take gates off the dome piece every
single time. It causes a lot of concussions.”
Kurka takes a risk every time he competes. But he no
longer seeks risk as he once did. He is now in that sweet
spot for an athlete, where mental acuity and discipline
make up for any lost athleticism.
“The way I figured it out was breathing techniques,”
he says. “Staying calm and relaxing, and realizing that I
wasn’t there [just] to win...being overly competitive is
just as much a weakness as it is a strength. If you focus
on winning, winning becomes a lot more difficult.”
Imagine for a moment that Kurka did not get into that
ATV accident and kept wrestling. Eventually, he would
probably have learned to be more patient on the mat and
win in a variety of ways. Instead, he turned to skiing and
experienced the same sort of growth. He has learned to
manage his fearlessness. Being more cautious has made
him better, and he says it has done something else:
“It makes my mom happier.”

DECLAN

FARMER

SLED HOCKEY

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MEET TEAM USA

“Being overly competitive is just

as much a weakness as it is a

strength,” Kurka says. “If you focus

on winning, winning BECOMES A LOT

MORE DIFFICULT.”