Sarubbi had never been on skis until 2001, and her involvement in community sports was the extent of her athletic career. But everything changed after Sept. 11, 2001, when her father John—a NYC firefighter—was contacted by several organizations who wanted to honor the first responders.

Among the organizations that reached out to the family was Disabled Sports USA, a foundation committed to helping people with disabilities live a fulfilled life through athletics with the motto, “If I can do this, I can do anything.”

The organization invited the Sarubbi family to a weeklong, all-expenses-paid ski trip to Breckinridge, Colo. The family fell in love with the organization, which has a local chapter called the Adaptive Sports Foundation in Windham, N.Y.

“When Caitlin started skiing at ASF, we started to volunteer there,” Cathy said. “The whole family gives back to the organization because now Caitlin’s story gets to be told.”

With the help of ASF, Sarubbi learned to ski with a guide who she follows down the mountain and communicates with through helmet walkie-talkies. Starting as a junior in high school, she took on a full racing schedule that she tried to balance with her coursework and college applications.

BEST WEEK EVER

In the spring of 2008, Sarubbi’s hard work paid off in what she emphatically calls the best week of her life. She had applied to Harvard not expecting to get in, so that the acceptance letter came as a shock, she said.

“She opened up the wrapping paper and saw the envelope, and the tears just start coming down her face,” Cathy said. “It was like all that hard work just came together. I’ll never forget that day in my life.”

Sarubbi had only received the first of what happened to be a week full of good news. Just two days later, she received another envelope, this one from the USA Paralympic Team, inviting her to compete in Vancouver.

“That year I was five-time national champ and overall national champ, so I knew that I had a good shot at making the team,” Sarubbi said. “The Harvard letter was way more of a shock and surprise, and a gift. To have them both pay off at the same time was pretty awesome.”

Although she had balanced racing and academics in high school, Sarubbi knew it was not sustainable in college. She met with Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67, who approved Sarubbi’s plan to attend Harvard for one semester and take the next year and a half off to compete in the Paralympics.

In Sarubbi’s first Paralympic games, she raced in all five alpine events, bringing home two sixth-place finishes and one eighth-place mark. Sarubbi—who is required to ski with a guide—said she struggled to find the right person to work with.

“When she went to the first Paralympics, other athletes were husband and wife or lifelong friends,” Jamie said. “You have to have that trust and that communication. Her past two guides didn’t see her as a person, just more as an athlete.”

MY SISTER’S KEEPER

Jamie—the second oldest of the five Sarubbi siblings—is trained as an adaptive ski instructor and started working with Sarubbi last year. She said that the decision to take a leave of absence from college was not a hard one because she grew up so close to her older sister.