PCA – Diagnostic Story

Jack Harris

Snow Rising

One day, a young boy named Tommy from Colorado went out to his local ski resort

called Aspen to snowboard with his family. Tommy has been skiing at this resort since he was

three years old and now, he is about 17 years old. Tommy has grown up watching the older kids

at the park doing tricks and competing in the annual Aspen Games. During his trip, Tommy was

going down the steepest trail on the mountain which he has done before, however, today had

heavy winds and heavy snow. Tommy hit a lump of snow out of nowhere and cartwheeled down

the hill for about 50 feet. Tommy’s board was snapped in half and his shoulder was out of place.

He got carted down the mountain by the ski patrol and taken to the hospital. Tommy’s collarbone

was broken and his ability to snowboard was in jeopardy.

Five years later, Tommy finally gets the all clear from his physical therapist to

snowboard again. Tommy lights up with excitement as his dreams to win the snowboarding

competition are finally back in the picture. Training in the offseason, Tommy begins to regain

more of his strength and work on his snowboarding skills in order to win the annual Aspen

Games. Tommy worked with his life-long friend, Blake, who has competed in the Aspen Games

before. Blake helped Tommy learn how to do a double backflip which is a huge improvement for

Tommy because he could only do a single before his crash. Tommy continues to train and

impress Blake with his perseverance and work ethic towards getting better no matter how many

times he fails a trick.

After a year with training with Blake, Tommy signed up for the Aspen Games and was

eagerly waiting for his chance to prove himself to the older kids that he grew up watching since
he was three. Tommy showed up for the competition early and began warming up and doing a

couple of runs on the mountain he’s been riding for his whole life. Blake then got Tommy from

the lift and they rode together to the competition to get ready for their runs. As he stands at the

top of the hill ready to drop in, Tommy thinks back to his accident and the hard work he has put

in to get back to this place. Tommy then drops in for his first run and nails the first couple rails

just how Blake taught him to. Tommy then gains his speed for the big jump and takes off from

the ramp. As he takes off, Blakes jaw drops as he notices Tommy spinning faster than in the

practices and he sees Tommy’s head go upside down three times as he realizes Tommy is going

for the first ever triple backflip of the Aspen games. Tommy completes his final rotations and

lands it perfectly; the crowd erupts in cheers as Tommy just created history for himself. Tommy

awaits the scores from the judges as he celebrates with his family and Blake. The judges all raise

tens and Tommy earns a perfect score and wins the gold medal at the Aspen Games. Despite

having a major injury in his most promising years, Tommy worked harder than he has his entire

life and made history for himself and fulfilled his lifelong dream of winning the Aspen Games.