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Alana Nichols takes a shot during the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
But later this week she will go after a career first — winning back to back Paralympic gold medals in women’s wheelchair basketball.
Nichols, a 2001 Farmington High graduate and the first American woman to win a gold medal in Summer and Winter Games, will represent Team USA for the second consecutive Paralympic Summer Games. She is traveling to London to compete against nine more of the world’s best teams with pool play beginning Aug. 30. The championship will be held Sept. 7.
Nichols has every intention of playing on the final day, but she expects this year to be the toughest challenge yet.
“The women’s scene has really developed the last four years. There are a lot of hungry women out there who want this medal,” Nichols said. “We are not taking any win for granted. We aren’t going into the games with eyes on the gold medal, we are going in with the attitude of ‘who is next.’”
Though Nichols has earned quite the reputation as a Paralympic skier, winning gold in the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver in both downhill sitting and giant slalom sitting as well as silver in Super-G sitting and bronze in super combined sitting, wheelchair basketball is the sport she first gravitated to after being paralyzed at age 17
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Two years later, Nichols picked up the sport and did well enough to receive a scholarship to play for the University of Arizona.
She was named an alternate during the 2004 Summer Paralympics in 2004 and eventually made the national team in 2005. In 2008, Nichols helped Team USA win gold in Beijing and another gold at the 2011 Parapan American Games.
“I would say my love for basketball and skiing are kind of equal, but right now I am biased toward basketball because I am loving playing right now,” Nichols said. “With the games approaching, it is really exciting and I feel like I am at the top of my game. I am really excited to be playing ball. A lot of my ski teammates are at Mount Hood right now doing summer training. I would love to be there with them, but being with Team USA basketball is an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
In 2006, Nichols and Team USA took silver in the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships, helping inspire the team to push for gold in Beijing two years later.
Though the team is coming off of a gold medal in the 2011 Parapan American Games, Nichols said the desire has been placed in the team thanks to three recent losses.
“We have suffered some losses to Germany, Australia and the Netherlands already,” Nichols said. “This is kind of a rebuilding time for us because we retired six of our athletes after Beijing who were some of the best in the world.
“We are as hungry as ever after having lost this summer. We want to go prove that it wasn’t necessarily supposed to happen that way with the losses. We know it will be harder this year, though, because it is definitely the most competitive year in women’s wheelchair basketball.”
All of the hard training is over for Nichols. She said these last few days are all about harnessing emotions and making sure she doesn’t peak too soon.
“You have to maintain a certain level of readiness without getting too excited,” she said. “The excitement is sort of at an all time high, though. I am just making sure I am shooting in the gym and working on refining my skills. Whatever I have done to prepare at this point is all I can do, strength and cardio-wise.”
The Paralympic games are actually a bit friendlier to the athletes than in other competitions, Nichols said.
“The bigness of the Paralympics is harder to deal with than other tournaments because it is such a big distraction being there, but we aren’t actually playing an incredible amount of games,” she said. “When we play tournaments in Europe or in the United States, we played two to three games each day. Over in London, we will only be playing one game a day with a day off in between.
“In terms of playing basketball, physically we are prepared to play as many games as we need to get to the championship.”
Team USA opens the games against France in pool play. The tournament has two pools of five teams.
After the Paralympic games wrap up, Nichols plans on traveling around Europe with a friend from Farmington. Then she plans on returning to Farmington for awhile before the snow begins to fall in Colorado.
“It is going to be an epic trip after the games, which will be a great way to unwind. Then I can come home and see my Farmington friends. I can spend time with my grandma and the rest of my family before I eventually make my move back to the mountains,” she said. “It is my pattern to live in Denver for the summer and move to the mountains to train for ski season.”
Nichols said transition from one sport to the other has become routine for her, though at times she envies the break other athletes receive after a big tournament.
“While most people after the Summer Games take at least a year off and change directions, I am jumping right into training for snow,” she said. “It is difficult to train for something that is so high pressure. It is one thing to train for individual competitions between the Paralympic Games, but the pressure of training for the Paralympics is almost like a nagging feeling because you want to be doing more and more.
“Training full time is great, but part of that means I have to manage my energy level. I am excited to get back on the mountain for sure, but I will really enjoy taking time in Farmington to enjoy my family.”
Despite the busy schedule, Nichols said she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“Life is unpredictable at times, but I am really lucky to be a sponsored athlete and I don’t have to work while I am training,” she said.
