It's One-Derful -- Seattle Woman Rides Fast Track To World Competition

Shannon Bloedel is a typical skier. It takes her longer than expected to gear up for a day on the slopes. She trades technical talk about the latest equipment with the ease of a lifelong skier. She'd rather be cutting up the powder than enduring lift lines.

But Bloedel, a 30-year-old Seattle rehabilitation counselor, is different. Paralyzed from the hips down, she controls her ski from a sitting position.

After only three years of serious competition, she is a member of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team, has earned a medal in each national championship and will race at the World Disabled Championships next week in Winter Park, Colo.

Sunday's Super G presents Bloedel with a strong chance at a medal on her monoski. Homer Jennings, alpine director and head coach of the U.S. disabled team, said her best event probably is the giant slalom, which comes on the final day of competition, March 6.

``I'm hoping Shannon can get a silver, but we'll be happy with a strong performance,'' Jennings said.

Few would have expected world-class athletic achievements from the 11-year-old who sustained severe injuries after her orangish-red minibike collided with a car on a lonely Gig Harbor road.

``I was able to accept myself pretty early,'' Bloedel said. The youngest of 10 children, Bloedel leaned heavily on her family, including a doctor father and nurse mother, and her Catholic faith to overcome her limitations and deal with the public's insensitivity.

By high school, few could keep up with Bloedel in her wheelchair at Wilson High in Tacoma. She competed in tennis, swimming, javelin, shot put, weightlifting and served in student government.

At the University of Washington, she was the first handicapped woman to join a sorority. She earned a bachelor's degree in social work and a master's in rehabilitation therapy.

As she wheeled across campus one day during her sophomore year, she was stopped by an enthusiastic student/ski instructor in Skiforall, a Seattle organization for disabled skiers.

``Davin Bremner recruited me,'' Bloedel said. ``He was grooming me for the world championships then.''

Bremner remembers the day well.

``I was young enough to be convinced that any handicapped person would love to learn how to ski,'' said Bremner, who worked his way up the ranks at Skiforall, eventually serving as president and board member.

``Not everybody likes it, but she clearly had an aptitude for it,'' he said. ``Even with her relatively high injury level, she learned it quickly. Her expertise comes more from her drive and enthusiasm than her physical ability. She's one motivated woman.''

Ten years ago, the technology was rustic. Bloedel learned to ski on a sitski, which is like a kayak without brakes.

Four winters ago she decided to try a monoski, similar to a sitski but elevated on a single ski with a hydraulic system that allows for weight shifts and gives a similar sensation to standard skiing.

Bloedel and her husband Troy, 27, an engineer, have spent $5,000 developing her 40-pound ski.

``My first year on the monoski was my worst experience on snow,'' she recalled. ``Literally blood, sweat and tears on the mountain. In the sitski, I was low to the ground and dragged a pole, so I had to break bad habits.''

Bloedel stuck with it and on Sunday will find herself in the starting shack at a world championship, one of seven women on the U.S. team. Previously she has competed in a World Cup competition and nine U.S. national races, winning the national downhill title three times.

Three hundred of the top handicapped skiers from 18 nations have descended on Winter Park. Bloedel, who will compete in all four events, said she is excited for the races but wishes she had more training time - or maybe time to recuperate.

At a national team training camp in Vail early last month, Bloedel crashed off an eight-foot cliff into a stand of aspens. She missed the trees but tore rib cartilage, sprained her lower back and experienced ``sensation in my legs where I don't normally have pain - where I don't normally feel anything.

``They gave me oxygen, the ski patrol took me down in a sled, and I went to the hospital in an ambulance. I think it was a little bit dramatic, but they'd never treated a disabled person before.''

At home, Bloedel stuffs her ribbons, medals and bibs in a drawer, and would love to add a world championship trophy to her collection. Ultimately, she'd like to claim an Olympic medal, but recent word is that handicapped skiing will not become an Olympic event in time for the 1992 Games in Albertville, France.

``It's definitely coming,'' she said, ``but whether it'll be in my racing career . . . If I can hang on, I know I can do it.''

A wait until 1996 might be too long, however. She would be 36.

``I wish I was five years younger,'' she said, ``but at the same time I'm glad I've been a pioneer - I'm definitely one of the first women monoskiers.''

Being a trailblazer has its drawbacks. Bloedel must rely on her sponsors and her own money to cover expenses. She also plans to compete at the nationals next month in Vermont. Little U.S. ski team money funnels down to disabled members, she said.

Jennings, her U.S. coach, said it won't be long before youngsters who have benefited from monoski technology will be outskiing the pioneers.

When that happens, Bloedel might be left to other activities, including raising a family, volunteering as a Skiforall instructor or enjoying free skiing.

``Skiing's not just fun and going fast,'' she said. ``It allows me to get out of a wheelchair and experience the mountains. Because of my skiing, I've been able to do more traveling than I ever would. It lets me ski with able-bodied skiers - ski with them or better than them..''

Her husband, who she met through a mutual ski friend and married four years ago, admitted that sometimes she outskis him, even though he gave her the initial instructions on the monoski.

``She motors down the hill,'' he said. ``The monoski has really freed her on the mountain. She can ski anywhere I can, and she can ski some places others can't.''

Such as at the World Championships.