Athlete Profile: Kevin Pearce

In 2009 Kevin Pearce was a Snowboard half-pipe gold medal hopeful for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics until a horrific crash during a training run left him in a coma and critical condition for 26 days. Pearce suffered a severe brain injury leaving him with permanent vision and memory loss. Before Pearce's crash, he was the only snowboarder to beat Shaun White in both the slopestyle and half-pipe events making him the odds-on favorite to dethrone the king of snowboarding. Fast foward to today, with his horrific crash more than four years removed, Kevin Pearce will finally have the chance to go to the Olympics, but not as a competitor. Pearce will attend the 2014 Olympics in Sochi as a spectator. While Pearce has taken to the slopes on his snowboard since the crash, he is not allowed to compete in snowboarding competitions of any kind due to the condition that his brain is still in nearly five years later. Despite that, Pearce's story and determination since his career ending crash has been inspirational. Pearce's creation of the "love your brain" foundation helps countless victims of severe brain injuries cope with the countless setbacks they encounter in their attempted returns to normalcy. Pearce continues to battle vision loss and memory loss along with numerous other complications since his crash but has made remarkable strides and embodies the determination of a true Olympian.

"Snowboarder Kevin Pearce Finally Heads to Olympics." 9news.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.