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From Ph.D. to Paralympics
She found adaptive sports while pursuing her doctorate. Now the UW alum and world-class Para Nordic skier is racing in Italy.
Nicole Zaino should have been working on her Ph.D. qualifying exam. It was 2019, her second year as a graduate student in the University of Washington Department of Mechanical Engineering, and though Zaino was excelling academically and enjoying her coursework, something was missing. “I was feeling burnt out and a little too stressed,” she says. “I was like, ‘I need some balance, some community that isn’t tied to a lab or academics.’”
Some quick online searching led her to Seattle Sled Hockey, which happened to be having an open practice that weekend. It turned out to be just the respite she needed from the rigors of her Ph.D. research in biomechanics.
Seven years later, she’s maintained that healthy balance as a part-time research scientist working for LUCI Mobility, which adds smart technology to power wheelchairs, and as a full-time athlete. This month, Zaino will compete in Para Nordic skiing, including cross-country skiing and biathlon, at the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Italy.
Zaino, ’23, had a stroke at age 8 that resulted in paralysis on her left side. She continued to dance and stayed active with her family, but she says adaptive sports—where athletes use mobility aids to level the playing field—weren’t nearly as prevalent at that time. Because she didn’t use a wheelchair, she didn’t consider herself a candidate anyway. The four years she spent on the Seattle Sled Hockey team, which became an affiliate of the Seattle Kraken in 2021, marked the first time she truly felt like an athlete.
That experience defined her future as much as her studies did. Though she loved the co-ed sled hockey community, Zaino says she wasn’t fond of “getting checked into walls by guys twice my size.” In 2022, she decided to try Nordic, or cross-country skiing, with a rented sit-ski and immediately fell in love. “When I sit-ski, it feels so amazing and graceful and freeing,” Zaino says. “Apparently, I love endurance sports! I love finding the ‘pain cave’ and pushing it. And my knowledge of biomechanics and physics has definitely helped me understand what the most efficient position for maneuvering is, for climbing hills with my disability.”
Eventually, she had a custom sit-ski built for her specific needs, which gives her lower-body stability on the skis. As a graduate student, her fascination with mobility aids like this informed her area of research. Her dissertation (under advising from Katherine Steele in the UW Department of Mechanical Engineering and Heather Feldner in UW Medicine’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine) examined how individuals use and are impacted by mobility aids. “I’ve always been interested in adaptive equipment—that’s what can really change somebody’s life after acquiring or being born with a disability,” Zaino says. “That’s what gives you access and levels the playing field with freedom and independence, all of those important things.”
Now living in Bozeman, Montana, Zaino trains six days a week, 11 months a year. Her hard work has paid off—she competed in her first World Cup in March 2024 and first World Championship in February 2025. In February 2026, she made Team USA for Para Nordic skiing. “I love that [these events] are individual—you’re not on a track, and it’s not always the same conditions, so you can’t compare race to race,” she says. “I’m always just comparing myself to the day before.”
Zaino’s races take place throughout the Paralympics, which run March 6-15, and can be streamed on Peacock or the Paralympics’ official YouTube channel. She encourages people to tune in, not just for visibility but “because the sports are really exciting and competitive to watch.”
Chelsea Lin is a writer at the University of Washington.
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