Toyota’s America TRD Division Created A Sit-Ski For Paralympics Athletes

Toyota today took the wraps off a form of mobility it has never before produced: a sit-ski. The device was designed specifically for use by U.S. Paralympics Alpine skiers and was designed by its U.S. racing arm.

A team of engineers from TRD USA and U.S. Paralympics Skiing came together to create the sit-ski from the ground up using lessons learned on both the racetrack and the ski hill. Testing has been ongoing since the winter of 2019 with five-time Paralympian Chris Devlin-young, who helped test the monoski and provided his feedback to Toyota’s engineers throughout the project.

“In a quest to revolutionize mobility for the world and inspire the next generation of Paralympic athletes, we’ve teamed up with an all-star group at Toyota Racing Development USA for this special project,” said Lisa Materazzo, group vice president, Toyota Marketing, Toyota Motor North America. “There is no better global event than the Paralympics for Toyota to reinforce our passionate belief that everyone has the right to freedom of movement in an inclusive society and we can’t wait to see the athletes compete in the first-ever Toyota Sit-Ski.”

The project focuses included the suspension system, the seating position and fit, and mechanical changes based on the different disciplines within para-alpine skiing. The ski will now be used by two-time paralympic medalist Andrew Kurka and seven-time Paralympic medalist Laurie Stephens at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Kurka hopes to defend the gold medal he won in downhill at PyeongChang in 2018 and best his silver medal in the Super-G. Stephens, meanwhile, will be looking to best her bronze medal in downhill and take the podium in the combined and super-G disciplines.

“There’s a lot of pressure on me especially going into Beijing to not only win but to represent my country and to set myself up for the future,” said Kurka, who is also a Team Toyota athlete. “I’m a very particular sit-skier because my life is on the line when I’m out there and I want to make sure that not only am I safe, but I’m fast. Win, lose or draw, the Toyota Sit-Ski is an awesome monoski.”

You can follow along throughout the design process thanks to a series of videos tracking the conception and development of the monoski that can be viewed at Toyota.com.