Local snowboarder Kate Delson named to U.S. Para Snowboard Team

Carmel Valley native Kate Delson, one of the top adaptive snowboarders in the country, was recently selected for the U.S. Para Snowboard Team. Delson is now training to compete and represent her country in the Milano Cortina Paralympic Winter Games in March 2026.

Delson is new to Team USA after finishing the 2024-25 season ranked second in the world, winning two World Cups in Switzerland and Steamboat Springs.

At 20, she is the youngest member of the team.

Delson is currently in training camp with Team USA in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world, close to Antarctica, snowboarding in winter in the middle of summer. Last week during a shake-out walk after a day of riding and strength and conditioning work with the team, she marveled at the opportunity and experience beyond what she could ever imagine.

“The gratitude is real,” Delson said. “I still have to remind myself that I get to do this… it’s pretty crazy.”

While she was born in sunny San Diego, Delson found her love of the mountains and snow sports from her mom’s side of the family: “It was meant to be from the moment my mom decided she liked the snow.”  The family owns a condo in Mammoth Lakes and Delson has been going there every winter since she was in the womb. She started skiing at the age of three with Disabled Sports Eastern Sierras.

Delson was born with a congenital disability, missing most of the muscles in her right leg, including her calf. She has minimal glute and hamstring in that right leg and a very strong quad, but skiing and having the two legs separate just didn’t quite click for her.

She begged and begged her family to try snowboarding and she finally got the chance to try riding when she was six years old. She fondly remembers that first day, getting the hang of it, graduating from bunny slopes and discovering a new sense of freedom on the board.

“Snowboarding for me is movement freedom,” Delson said.

Snowboarding clicked. Over the years, she developed a love for the park aspects of snowboarding, for all the jumps and rails, she would ride all day until her feet were frozen. She loved the challenge of trying to learn tricks like 360s and board slides, trying to get better.

As a teenager, Delson spent her first two years of high school at Canyon Crest Academy, but during the pandemic she convinced her parents to let her go up to Mammoth and become a member of the Mammoth Snowboard Team. The team had never had an athlete with a disability and it was the middle of the season, but she was able to join up and start riding and working with a coach. It was a perfect fit.

“My confidence in the park just skyrocketed,” Delson said. “A few weeks after joining the team, I landed my first 360 off a real jump, after working on it for a year or two. That changed my mindset: ‘I can do this’.”

She started competing in United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) competitions, primarily in slope style snowboarding. Two winters later at the USASA Junior Nationals in Copper Mountain, Colorado, she placed third in the women’s 17-18 age group: ”It was really cool being the only para-athlete in the competition and landing the run I really wanted,” she said.

In those competitions, she got associated with para sports and Team Utah. After graduating high school in 2023, she decided she had to give her dream of snowboarding as a career a shot. She spent one very fun summer working as a kayak guide with La Jolla Sea Caves Kayaks before moving full-time to Salt Lake City, Utah, and started training with both able-body and para athletes with Team Utah.

In Utah, she also works at the National Ability Center, one of the best adaptive recreation resources in the country.

Delson won her first para snowboarding competition at the Europa Cup in Finland as a member of Team Utah, kicking off a hot streak that included her two World Cup wins this year and her number two ranking.

In para-snowboarding, she competes in banked slalom, a solo time-based and very technical race, and snowboard cross, in which four snowboarders race head-to-head down a challenging course.

“It’s pretty fun, especially when you get a nice tight race going,” Delson said of the adrenaline rush of snowboard cross. “There’s definitely scary aspects to it, but you’ve just got to accept the fear and just go for it.”

As a member of Team USA, she trains at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Center of Excellence in Park City. Being part of Team USA has been a huge benefit as Delson has access to a wealth of resources, including coaches, a physical therapist and a nutritionist, with her lodging and competition fees covered. She also has the added benefit of soaking up an extremely high-performing environment, surrounded by her knowledgeable and talented para snowboarding teammates.

Before heading to training camp in Argentina, Delson spent her summer cross-training, including mountain biking, skateboarding and getting in the gym “a ton”—the snowboard center has a dry slope start where she can practice pulling out of the gate for her events. Whenever she’s visiting San Diego, you can catch Kate every day cross-training at the pump track at Pacific Highlands Ranch Community Park.

It has been a dream realized for Delson to pursue snowboarding as a career. Nothing matches the sense of creative freedom she gets when on her board, clearing her mind riding in the park or the adrenaline-spiked smile on her face on the snowboard cross course.

Her next big competition is in November in Landgraaf, Netherlands, the banked slalom indoors World Cup. Everything is sloping toward the Paralympic Winter Games in Italy next year.

“Right now going into a Games year, I’m working with what I have, making some changes, trying to get stronger,” Delson said. “It’s a huge confidence boost to be strong and powerful straight out of the gate. I’m working on my mental game a lot, having my focus together.”