Enfield Native Headed To Second Straight Winter Paralympic Games

BEIJING, CHINA — When the opening ceremony of the XIII Paralympic Winter Games kicks off March 4, Enfield native Andrew Haraghey will be alongside fellow members of Team USA for the second straight Olympiad.

Haraghey, 26, a 2014 graduate of Enrico Fermi High School, will be competing in alpine skiing, and looking to improve his placements from the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. He placed 18th in downhill and 24th in super-G in those Games; at the world championships earlier this season, he took 15th in downhill and 24th in super-G.

At six months old, Haraghey contracted viral encephalitis, resulting in cerebral palsy. He has severe muscle tension from the waist down, but took up skiing at age 7, and began racing in 2010.

As he was finishing high school, he attempted to qualify for the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, but came up a bit short. With the support of his family, he increased his determination to make the 2018 team, persevering despite suffering a broken femur in a crash during a training run two years earlier.

Haraghey received the Bob Casey Courage Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance in 2014. He left the podium at that event with some inspirational words for the hundreds of attendees.

"The moment someone tells you you can't do something, you probably won't be able to walk, you probably won't be able to compete with able-bodied kids, you won't be able to keep up. That's the moment that yo make it your job to prove them wrong. That is what I try to live every day by, to prove them wrong and prove that I am capable, that I will be able to do it and that I will do it."