Watch: Paralyzed skier does backflip on slopes
On March 8, 2004, 23-year-old daredevil skier Josh Dueck set out to do his signature trick at Silver Star Resort in British Columbia: a front-flip. It did not go as planned. He was going too fast, over-rotated in the air and completely overshot the landing hill - falling over 100 feet on his face.
Dueck broke his neck and completely severed his spinal cord. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
But Dueck never gave up on his passion for skiing. With the help of a device called a "sit-ski," he went on to win the silver medal in the slalom at the 2010 Winter Paralympics as well as a para-Alpine world championship medal, according to BroBible.
But this past week, Dueck did the unthinkable. The 31-year-old became the first person to do a backflip on a sit-ski. (Watch the incredible flip at Powder Mountain in Whistler above).
"This is something I've been dreaming about ever since I was laid out in the hospital," Dueck said. "I've been wanting to get back on the horse ever since I got knocked off."
Dueck is the second paralyzed athlete in less a month to pull off a remarkable accomplishment on a sit-ski. In January, Grant Korgan, who was paralyzed in a 2010 snowmobiling accident, used the device to reach the South Pole by self-propelling himself 75 miles in sub-zero temperatures.