“If you ever watch footage, you can see the flag no matter what. It’s crazy,” she says. “They’re very patriotic.”

Amid the intensity of the Paralympic atmosphere and the uncertainty of the weather conditions, Sarubbi says her family provided comic relief for the coaches and the athletes. Showing their support with their airhorns, sirens, and cowbells, the Sarubbi family brought fun back into the competitive environment.

“It was supposed to be fun and it was a nice relief from business and skiing and seriousness,” she says. “It was a really good balance. I was lucky they were all there.”

THE ROAD TO 2014

While Sarubbi returned to Harvard in the fall, she says that she plans to take more time off to train for and compete in the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. Noting that she gained valuable experience from her time in Vancouver, Sarubbi says she is going into the 2014 games with a “different outlook.”

Sarubbi’s guide will be her younger sister Jamie. Sarubbi says she is confident the two will be compatible because of their close age, mutual interests, and familial relationship.

She says she also hopes she will be able to have more fun skiing and not succumb to the pressures of the competitive environment.

“I’m not going to slack off or anything, but just make sure I have fun,” Sarubbi says. “I think if I’m enjoying it, the skiing’s going to come, the results are going to come.”

Eventually, Sarubbi says she hopes to graduate from Harvard and go to medical school. Until then, she will continue her long hours in the gym and on the ski slopes as she prepares for the 2014 Paralympics.

—Staff writer Eliza M. Nguyen can be reached at enguyen@college.harvard.edu.