Cross-country skier Dan Cnossen, M.P.A. ’16, M.T.S. ’18, is one of the most decorated athletes in U.S. Paralympic history, with seven medals, including two golds. Now 45, he is training to compete in his fourth Paralympic Winter Games this March in Italy. A former Navy SEAL, Cnossen lost both his legs in Afghanistan in 2009 and was drawn to skiing during recovery. “I was craving mobility,” he says, and a sport that would allow his body “to be the engine.”
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Where in the world is your favorite place to ski? Norway.
What is a path you didn’t take? I was strongly considering law school. I decided not to because I had done very well in the 2018 Games and been approached by an agency that would represent me as a public speaker. It opened up this possibility that I could keep doing this sport I love and make a salary sharing my story.
What is your go-to comfort food? Right now, I’m exercising a lot of food discipline, so I don’t really have comfort food, but it would be dessert—apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
What’s something you’re afraid of? I’ve been afraid of heights and jumping out of airplanes, which was an issue in the SEAL teams. But you just do it. Then you do it the next time, and it becomes gradually easier. I overcame the fear through exposure, and then it started to become fun. Now, I’ve been climbing. I had not done that since my injury, but the first time I went to Austria, we were climbing a dam that’s hundreds of feet high. I was nervous—it wasn’t so much the heights as the fact that I didn’t have legs!
Where do you keep your medals? On my bookshelf. They came in a travel case. I am focused on the future, the next Games, and don’t necessarily want to dwell too much on what I did in the past. But when I’m retired, then maybe they’ll come out more.
