Stephanie Jallen (born February 13, 1996), nicknamed Hopper, is an American skier. She qualified for the

2014 Winter Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an ...

competing for

Team USA The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

and won a bronze in the standing

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

and

super combined Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. A traditional combined competition consists of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom, each discipline runs on separate days. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. (Until the 1990s ...

Personal history

Stephanie Jallen was born on 13 February 1996 in Kingston,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Jallen was born with

CHILD syndrome Congenital hemidysplasia with ichthyosiform erythroderma and limb defects (also known as "CHILD syndrome") is a genetic disorder with onset at birth seen almost exclusively in females.Freedberg, et al. (2003). ''Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in Gener ...

, Congenital Hemidysplasia with Ichthyosis and Limb Defects Syndrome. This meant that Jallen's left leg had to be amputated, her left side is under-developed, and she suffers from rashes. Her nickname, Hopper, comes from the fact that when her

prosthetic limb In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

s weren't being worn, she had to hop. Jallen has always been active and learned to play soccer with her friends. She does have a crutch but she uses it mainly for balance and is happy to stand or move around on her leg. In an interview she said that she would not want to have her limbs back to normal as that would just make her "boring". Jallen is studying at King's College in hopes of earning a business degree.

Career

Jallen was introduced to skiing at a 2006 winter ski clinic in Pennsylvania. Her international debut was in 2011. In that year, she was the US slalom champion after coming first in the event. She has encouraged Iraq war amputees and when she was eleven in 2007 she spoke at Harrisburg to the Pennsylvania senate and told them not to give up. In 2012, she "lacerated" her face in

Kimberley, British Columbia Kimberley is a city in southeast British Columbia, Canada along Highway 95A between the Purcell and Rocky Mountains. Kimberley was named in 1896 after the Kimberley mine in South Africa. From 1917 to 2001, it was the home to the world's largest ...

in a Super-G event. The resulting wound needed twelve facial stitches. She also fractured her

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

plateau and partly tore a knee ligament. Jallen has also suffered head and back injuries, as well as undergone surgeries to the knee and ankle.

Paralympics

At her début Paralympics, the

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, Jallen competed for

in three events: the super-G, the slalom, and the super combined (Jallen is competing in standing in all events). She was the second-youngest member of the national team. She came third in the super-G, finishing 5.94 seconds behind Marie Bochet; also finishing behind

Solène Jambaqué Solène Jambaqué (born 14 April 1988 in Toulouse) is a French alpine skier and two time Paralympic Champion. She competed in the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, Italy. She won a gold medal in the Super-G and Downhill, a silver medal in Slal ...

, both of France. Jallen came third in the super combined with a time of 1:25.15 seconds, 4.74 seconds behind Bochet, who won. However, Jallen did not finish the slalom and fell in the giant slalom.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jallen, Stephanie People from Kingston, Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Living people Paralympic alpine skiers for the United States Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Paralympics 1996 births Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States American amputees Medalists at the 2014 Winter Paralympics American female alpine skiers Paralympic medalists in alpine skiing 21st-century American women