USA's Brenna Huckaby Wants The Most Gold Medals In Paralympic Snowboard History, but She'll Miss Her Cat

Brenna Huckaby has beaten cancer and gone on to become the most decorated snowboarder in Paralympic history.

She became the first Paralympian to appear in the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated. She’s back in Italy for her third Paralympic Games.

But when she returns home to her cat named Mouse, none of that will matter.

“The hardest part, honestly, is when I come home, she usually punishes me because she's like, ‘How dare you leave for X amount of time?’” Huckaby said in a Zoom interview organized by the pet food brand Nulo. “So I usually have to worm her back into me. It takes, like, five days. It's getting shorter, though.”

"Honestly, that's the hardest part, but, you know, I can deal with it. I guess,” she said.

It’s a small price to pay to hold the title of “best Paralympic snowboarder alive.” At this year’s Games, Huckaby will try to break a tie for the most golds in Paralympic snowboard history that she shares with Dutch rider Bibian Mentel-Spee. Mentel-Spee won her 2018 medals at the age of 45, and died three years later after a battle with a brain tumor.

Huckaby, 30, comes to Italy with three Paralympic Gold Medals in her trophy case. She won her first in snowboard cross in 2018 at the PyeongChang Games in Korea, as well as banked slalom at those same games. She took home gold in the banked slalom and a bronze in snowboard cross in the 2022 Beijing Games. She is a five-time world champion and a three-time runner-up at world championships.

Not too shabby for someone who got their start doing gymnastics in Louisiana.

Huckaby was working toward a gymnastics scholarship in her home state when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the age of 14. The rare bone cancer forced her to amputate her right leg. A year later, she took a trip to Utah with an organization that brought kids with cancer skiing and snowboarding, and chose snowboarding because it reminded her of the balance beam, she told People Magazine.

“At that time of my life, I would've given anything to have just a piece of my old life back,” she said to People.

So she moved to Utah. Somewhere along the way, she became the best Paralympic snowboarder of all time. She has two children with her husband, Tristan Clegg, a former snowboard cross rider himself.

This will be the first Paralympic Games she competes in without having children in between. For one thing, that made it easier to train and balance being a mother with being a professional athlete. But this will be the first Games that her entire family will be in attendance – Mouse not included.

“Honestly, that's what I'm most excited about with these Games,” she said. “Is knowing that my family is going to be there - hopefully at the bottom - on snow.”

Huckaby will first compete in the Women's Snowboard Cross SB-LL2 race. Seeding begins on Saturday, March 7, 2026, at 5 a.m. EST, and if she moves on to the finals day, that will begin on March 8, 2026, at 6 a.m. She will then compete in the Women's Banked Slalom SB-LL2 race on Saturday, March 14, 2026, at 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

LL2 is a para-snowboarding classification for riders with lower limb impairments, specifically below-the-knee amputations or similar functional limitations.