‘This is a Ferrari of a leg.’ Central Coast snowboarder to compete in Paralympic Games
A decade ago, Brazilian native André Barbieri suffered a snowboarding crash so violent that he broke his femur and ended up losing his left leg.
But after a lengthy rehabilitation process, he learned to use a prosthetic limb and eventually returned to the slopes thanks to a special artificial snowboarding leg that has ties to San Luis Obispo and the Central Coast.
In March, Barbieri will compete in the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Games — which takes place two weeks after the Feb. 4-20 Beijing Winter Olympics and features athletes with physical disabilities.
Barbieri, 40, who now lives in Santa Barbara, will be the only snowboarder representing his native country.
He’s both a client and employee with Hanger Clinic, a national prosthetic care company that has offices throughout the Central Coast, including a Broad Street facility in San Luis Obispo.
In addition to his “everyday walking leg,” the company recently finalized design and fitting of a special prosthetic socket for his snowboarding leg, he said.
Last week, Barbieri was at the SLO clinic making sure all the adjustments were working properly and the fit was just right. The leg was designed in Hanger’s Santa Maria office.
At the SLO office on Tuesday, where he met with his prosthetic clinician, Barbieri said he has experienced an intense emotional journey after the crash on Mammoth Mountain in March 2011 that cost him his limb.
“At the end of the day, it was just a leg, not my life,” Barbieri said. “I’ve had so many great opportunities come out of it. I’m grateful. I’m blessed.”
Crash at Mammoth almost cost him his life
Barbieri moved to the United States about 15 years ago and fell in love with snowboarding.
He enjoyed surfing as well, a sport he still loves and does balancing on his knee and hands.
But it was the first run of a three-day weekend trip to Mammoth when he was 29 years old that changed his life forever.
“I hit a patch of ice that I didn’t see, lost control, and hit my leg on the fence that separates the trail from off-trail,” Barbieri said. “It almost cost me my life because I was bleeding nonstop.”
Barbieri went in and out of consciousness as he was rushed off the mountain by ski patrol. He was airlifted from Mammoth to a Reno hospital.
Doctors spent the next five days performing multiple surgeries in an attempt to save his leg which suffered a compound fracture.
“It wasn’t coming together,” Barbieri said. “It was time to say goodbye (to the leg). It was rough on the family, my then-girlfriend and now wife, and my friends. It gives you perspective. If you make your parents suffer like that, and I saw all that I caused, it was brand-new beginnings, a new lease on life.”
When Hanger acquired a couple of offices on the Central Coast, Barbieri got connected as a patient seeking prosthetic care. He then was hired on in 2019 at the company which is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Barbieri is the Central Coast’s community care coordinator and business development manager for Hanger.
“My favorite part is working with amputees, especially when they’re brand new,” he said. “I can tell them how it will be, and it really makes my day. That’s what happened to me, and it really makes a difference for someone to tell them how it’s going to be. It’s a completely new world.”
How snowboarding prosthetic works
Barbieri, who stands 6-foot-3, said the 13-pound prosthetic snowboarding limb uses a suction system to attach to his above-knee prosthetic.
The snowboarding prosthetic has extra shock absorption to brace for impact and flex, properly bending to match the movements of the sport.
“This is a Ferrari of a leg,” Barbieri said. “I walk like a million dollars. With both of my prosthetics, I have two Ferraris. It’s really good when you have a clinician to count on and make adjustments. They make your life much easier.”
His clinician, Alexis Peterson, said fitting a prosthetic is like finding just the right hiking boots, but with significant evaluations and design and manufacturing steps. Peterson is a certified orthotist and prosthetist.
“If your boots are too loose, you’re going to have a sloppy hike,” Peterson said. “If they’re too tight, it’s going to hurt. It has to be just right.”
Peterson has worked with Barbieri for the past two years.
“We had to have specific components for him,” Peterson said. “It’s not like a normal prosthetic. We didn’t want it falling apart when he was on the slopes. We tell people it’s not our job to tell people how fast to go, but it is our job to keep up with them.”
Ready to represent Brazil
When he gets to China, Barbieri will be one of six Brazilians in the Paralympics.
His home country gets minimal snow, just a handful of days per year in the southern region where he’s from, and no snowboarding opportunities, Barbieri said.
After six qualifying events, he’s one of 20 snowboarders in the Paralympic Games in a field that includes Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Bosnian and Dutch athletes.
“I’m over the moon,” Barbieri said. “I just had a new kid. I’m not an athlete full time. I have a full-time job and a family. And I was able to make it. I’m super excited.”
Given his dad duties with 3-year-old and 11-month-old daughters, he juggles work, family and training.
He often practices through cross-training on dry land, getting to the snow when he can.
“You can do a lot of stuff by training your leg and muscles through the motions (off the slopes),” Barbieri said. “I try to go to Mammoth Mountain, Big Bear, as well as extended training camps through my federation. There are a lot of people involved. It takes a village, and I’m grateful for my opportunities.”
His parents have come from Brazil to help out with family responsibilities as he prepares for the games.
He has even slept in the car to train before, when hotels were fully booked on his snow trips, which he described as “not pleasant.”
“It was a lot of work, a lot of time away, but I got it,” Barbieri said. “I’m excited.”
The Paralympic Games will be held March 4-13, and events will be shown on NBC, Peacock, USA Network, Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 9:23 AM.
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