SUNY Chancellor King Highlights Alumna Representing SUNY on Team USA During Winter Paralympic Games
March 6, 2026
SUNY Adirondack Alumna Competing as Part of the 2026 U.S. Paralympic Alpine Team
Albany, NY – State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today highlighted the SUNY alumna that is part of Team USA and will be participating in the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games. Kelsey O'Driscoll is a SUNY Adirondack alumna who will be competing as part of the U.S. Paralympic Alpine Team.
"The strength and resilience of Team USA's Paralympians are shown through their hard-work and dedication to their individual sports," SUNY Chancellor King said. "We are incredibly proud to celebrate SUNY alumna Kelsey O'Driscoll as she represents both Team USA and SUNY in the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games. Congratulations to every athlete chosen to represent Team USA at this year's games."
The SUNY Board of Trustees said, "The Paralympic Games bring together amazing athletes to showcase their talent and strength on the world stage. We are proud of Kelsey O'Driscoll and wish her luck while she represents Team USA and Team SUNY at the Winter Paralympic Games this year."
About Kelsey O'Driscoll:
- Kelsey O'Driscoll will be competing as part of the U.S. Paralympic Alpine Team. O'Driscoll graduated from SUNY Adirondack in 2019 and became a registered nurse to live out her dreams of helping others and making a positive impact. While sledding with her family in 2021, O'Driscoll sustained spinal fractures, which left permanent damage and required her to relearn how to walk. She was determined to return to nursing, and, along the way, relearned her love of skiing as a four-tracker.
O'Driscoll's participation in the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games follows the participation of two SUNY alumni in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Sophia Kirkby, a North Country Community College Alumna, competed as part of the women's doubles luge team, and Chris Lillis, an alumnus of Monroe Community College, competed in men's aerials for Team USA.
Along with the Team USA Olympians, Riccardo Bianchi, Ph.D., SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Associate Dean for the Foundations of Medicine in the College of Medicine and Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, returned to his hometown of La Spezia, Italy, last month as one of 10,001 Olympic Torch Bearers for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
SUNY offers athletic opportunities for students at all levels of competition from intramural and club sports to nationally ranked National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), or United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) sports teams. Statewide, SUNY has over 85 NCAA Division I, 290 NCAA Division III, and 385 NJCAA athletic teams, as well as hundreds of non-competitive athletic clubs.
To learn more about SUNY athletics and find a SUNY sporting event near you, please visit: https://www.suny.edu/attend/athletics/
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
Share this:
Holly Liapis
518-320-1311
Email the Office of Communications
