Whistler Bike Park opens for 26th season with four-wheel pioneer Kohut
The Whistler Bike Park is set to open for the season on May 15, and this will be the 26th year that Kohut has taken to its trails. After a significant back injury at 21, he became Canada’s first gold medalist in sit-skiing, winning the 1996 World Championship of Disabled Skiing in Austria and earning three silver medals during the 1998 Paralympic Winter Games in Nagano. Kohut discovered a four-wheel bike in 1992 but didn’t get one until 1999, the same year he departed from the National Ski Team, only to compete again in the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake. Now 55 and living in Whistler since 2000, he rides at least three and a half days a week, aiming for 10 runs each day, with hopes of riding until he’s 95.
Key facts
- May 15 is Opening Day of the Whistler Bike Park.
- Kohut starts his 26th season riding the park.
- He broke his back at age 21 attempting a super-loop on a swing set.
- Kohut became Canada's first-ever gold medalist in sit-skiing.
- He won the 1996 World Championship of Disabled Skiing in Austria.
- He earned three silver medals at the 1998 Paralympic Winter Games in Nagano.
- Kohut acquired his first four-wheel bike in 1999 after a seven-year wait.
- Red Bull called him the world's fastest mountain biker on four wheels in 2017.
- He advocates for blending the Paralympics into the Olympics.
- Kohut was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta.
Entities
Artists
- Kohut
Institutions
- Whistler Bike Park
- Red Bull
- National Ski Team
Locations
- Whistler
- Canada
- Austria
- Nagano
- Japan
- Salt Lake
- United States
- Calgary
- Alberta