03.07.2026

0:00So to be headed into my second Paralympics growing up as a kid who people may have laughed at if the idea of you know Wanting to be a professional athlete. It's a good feeling for sure You know and it's a testament to the fact that no matter what you have a goal and you work hard enough and you go for it You make the sacrifices I mean you never give up and you just find a way you'll be surprised what you can do The Olympics may be over but the Paralympic games are just getting underway in Italy and among the athletes competing is Zach Miller a 26-year-old paris snowboarder from Colorado with cerebral palsy who has been in five world Championships and won seven medals including two gold He's also an athlete mentor for classroom champions and just before the games got underway He joined me here on kid news combos for a fantastic conversation about what it's like to compete at the games How much training is required and his favorite post-workout snack. Hey Zach. Thanks for joining me Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me as we're recording this. You're still a few days away from the competition starting

1:04So how are you feeling? Are you excited or you're nervous? What's it like? Yeah, I would say there's a few emotions that play right now I don't know if it's like fully hit yet, you know that like I'm going to the games When I got the news that you know I'd qualified for the team and that I was gonna go to me It was a big weight off of my shoulders because our team are sport really of paris snowboarding We wait until the last possible minute to pick our paralympic team and so when I originally got that phone call It was like okay made it but yeah, now that I'm here It just kind of feels like a regular trip right now I think the excitement and kind of anxiety of it is starting to build a little bit I feel like once we show up to team processing and we get to do the you know the team USA welcome experience We get sized for our you know Olympic opening ceremonies closing ceremonies gear all that stuff I think that's when it'll really just like fully drive at home that I am at the paralympic games It's happening, but you participated in the last paralympic games in Beijing right in 2022

2:05But you would recently been injured. So so tell us about that experience. Yes. This is my second games The Beijing Paralympics in 2022 was my first Paralympic experience kind of bittersweet Obviously, it's a huge achievement to make it to the the paralympic games whenever it's your first time It's just there's a lot that happens, right? Yeah, headed into that games. I had a pretty significant lower back injury had to do a pretty crazy You know medical procedure just to be able to to get there and compete it didn't go well I really didn't place how I wanted to and so going into This games I was really excited to to be you know riding at the level that I know I can Beijing being my first experience was great to be a Paralympian But it was during COVID, you know, it was while the whole world was shut down So it was not really any kind of traditional games experience. We had no crowds my family couldn't come There was testing constantly and there was just a lot of stuff we had to deal with this time around

3:06It's like a real games experience. You know what my parents are already there. They're gonna be flying over pretty soon This will be the first time that I've actually come across the finish line to a huge crowd We actually our event is sold out now So I'm having tons of people even other athletes and other teams asking if I have any extra tickets Because I think that's how excited people are to watch our sport and so I just can't wait kind of for that That experience of getting through the finish line and just everybody being there the cheering the cowbells the music It's just gonna be it's gonna be great. So I'm really looking forward to it. Oh my gosh I'd like I want to be there. You know, it sounds so exciting So I'm just how much training do you do for this event? Is it a full-time job or Do you just fit it in when you can with the rest of your life? Oh, absolutely. This is a full-time job I would be I'm very impressed with the athletes that do also do like some side jobs I think a lot of Paralympians and also Olympians as well You know, there's a lot of us that are finding extra ways to just kind of build in some extra income because

4:07Manly sports are expensive For me, it's a full-time job because of the training that's involved if I'm not on snow I'm in the gym if I'm not on snow or in the gym that I'm at home doing some kind of recovery and Then if I'm not doing any of those three things. I'm usually either doing some public speaking going to different schools sharing my story Or I'm doing anything else to kind of raise funds for our team or for myself To be able to afford this you know traveling the world's expensive the equipment that we use is very expensive I don't even have the the issue of having to deal with prosthetic costs because I just have cerebral palsy But a lot of the athletes, you know all the athletes on my team save one they all have prosthetic legs and Those have parts and expenses associated with them and so you definitely have to balance it It's really just easy for me to remind myself whenever I do get overwhelmed that like man What a blessing to be overwhelmed by the life that I I wished for and prayed for as a kid, you know Yeah, yeah So you were born with cerebral palsy

5:09Can you explain to our listeners who might not know exactly what that is and how it impacts your life? Of course, so the easiest way that I like to explain my disability cerebral palsy is Especially if you know someone who's ever had a stroke It's very similar to that Basically what happens is in the womb during fetal development before I'm born I had my brain damaged and the part of my brain that that received all this damage is the part that controls my muscles And so when that part of your brain is the one that's damaged it ends up with you being born originally Pretty pretty healthy and okay But as I started to get older my my parents and my grandparents noticed that I wasn't acting like a regular Baby, um, they noticed I wasn't holding my head up independently I wouldn't really track things with my eyes and so when we went to the hospital We found out it was because those muscles hadn't developed yet or they weren't developing So for me the most important thing was getting an early diagnosis and making sure I was in the hospital immediately getting treatment

6:13tons of physical therapy Something I always really disliked about my disability was how much time it pulled me away from my friends growing up You know we go to school and my friends will make plans for after school I couldn't do that because I had to go to the hospital and get some extra physical therapy done But I will say it's been kind of a blessing in disguise my disability has taught me a lot about life taught me how to be resilient taught me how to deal with you know extra challenges and maybe the feeling of not fitting in And just yeah making sure that like I take care of myself of my body And that I can still do the things that I want to do right which for me was become a professional athlete So to be headed into my second paralympics You know growing up as a kid who people may have laughed at at the idea of you know wanting to be a professional athlete It's it's a good feeling for sure, you know, and it's a testament to You know the fact that no matter what you know if you have a goal and you work hard enough and you You go for it. You make the sacrifices I mean you never give up and you just find a way

7:15You'll be surprised what you can do Well, I did read you told olympics.com you try to scare yourself at least once a day So you continue to push those down to I as a mom that makes me nervous It makes my mom nervous too. Don't worry. Yeah to me. It's uh, it sounds A bit silly when you first say you should scare yourself at least once a day But the overall message the point is that you got to be testing your boundaries like you got to be pushing your limits If you always stay where you are most comfortable Then you never have an opportunity for growth But if you're trying new things and it doesn't have to be scary as in Risky it can just be scary as in something you've never tried before it could be trying a new hobby Or talking to someone you haven't talked to before that can lead to Relationships and circumstances that you never would have found yourself in otherwise and even if they don't work out That's okay, but sometimes they can lead to some incredible things and you can find yourself in a new place That can be really exciting We're gonna take a quick break and when we come back

8:16Zach talks about kids asking him the best questions how his favorite subject in school has helped his success on the slopes And why he describes himself as a huge nerd more kid news combos right after this A friendly reminder that kid news is a non-profit that survives and thrives on the generosity of our audience Every penny supports the production of our regular kid-friendly news podcast five days a week Plus these kid news combos episodes featuring conversations on a single topic of interest to kids Please consider making a donation on our website kidnews.org And we're back with kid news combos. I'm Tori talking with Paralympic snowboarder Zach Miller getting ready for the games in Italy Zach, I mentioned at the top you're an athlete mentor for a classroom champions Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, the classroom champions program is definitely a big deal to me It's been really cool over the course of this season to not just interact with some really cool kids

9:18That by the way ask better questions than most like reporters and journalists I've been doing with all season kids just asked the fun questions. I always love interacting with them But I think what's more important especially about that program is some of the subjects that it addresses I was really excited to be a part of the classroom champions program in the community because I think that some of the The lessons and the the topics that are addressed in that curriculum can be really big for kids that are you know in a phase of life where There's a lot of uncertainty and where you're just trying to figure out where you fit in and what to do and what Decisions and choices to make um from a day-to-day basis Can you share some of the favorite questions you've been asked? Well, yeah, just the fun ones, you know like um one kid asked me what my favorite food was and I will say if you ask that question To most elite level athletes They are most of the time not gonna come back with anything that's healthy

10:22You know my answer is cookie dough. I love cookie dough. I want it all the time Obviously, I don't eat a ton of cookie dough, but to me it's big, you know It's a great sweet treat reward after a long day of training and you you describe yourself as quite a nerd Is that right extremely? I think a lot of people would see me kind of face value and be like oh, okay Get it he's like a jock that's obsessed with speed, but then yeah if you just take a quick tour of my house There's Lego sets everywhere. I have a steam deck. I have Nintendo switch You know, I love to play video games in my spare time when I have it I brought a set of D&D dice with me to the games just in case We end up, you know running a quick D&D campaign over there And then like just even when it comes to my sport one of the coolest things About my sport some of the physics and the the math that's at play um and the science that goes into our snowboards The construction of them how different flex patterns change the way a snowboard turns and the radius of that and how

11:24We make our wax called based on the the temperature of the snow combined with the ambient temperature combined with what's been in the sun versus in the shade I mean you could spend all day just talking about how scientific my sport gets And science was my favorite subject in school So any final advice for kids who might have some aspirations, you know to follow their dreams Yeah, there's a lot of things I've been reminding myself of especially that we head into the games About what to me has been the most important thing in my career in my life Obviously, I want to be remembered as like a competitor I want to be a guy who you know when he shows up on snow and to a world cup or a competition that you say to yourself I well, I guess I'm fighting for second right but the most important legacy to me is Being kind of a positive member of like my community It's about uplifting my sport and my teammates and the people that I interact with about looking at the people that I race against Not as you know adversaries or enemies, but as as competitors And one of the things that I really want to focus on especially mentally going into these games is to

12:30Have fun and just enjoy the fact that I did make it to exactly where I want to be That's awesome. Well all the best to you. When do you start your competition? A good question So unfortunately, I will be missing opening ceremony because I qualify the next day So March 7th we are qualifying March 8th. I'll be racing in Bordercross That one is definitely one to tune in for and then I think we have Bang Sloan if I can check it quickly on the 14th Oh, yes, so I race the 8th and the 14th Okay, if you want to watch my sport, but I mean during the entire Paralympic games It'll just be a good idea to tune in no matter what there's gonna be a lot of really cool sports on display So all those families and kids at home tune in because it's gonna be really exciting And I'm sure you're gonna learn a lot about the Paralympic movement and our sports that we do and how exciting we are I think it's fabulous and you're an amazing spokesperson for it. We certainly wish you all the best absolutely And thank you for listening to kid news combos if you have comments on this episode or suggestions for another

13:32Combo's topic. Please send us an email at we hear you at kidnews.org Have a great weekend. We hope you tune in for our next regular kid news podcast every weekday morning