Joe Pleban – Faced true adversity head-on to become a Paralympic snowboarder
Joe Pleban (Christopher Newport ‘12) has been active in sports and competition throughout his life, but snowboarding was always his true passion. He said, “I spent every family vacation to Vermont and snowy weekends on the slopes and in the terrain parks. I had the opportunity to snowboard some of the most professionally challenging terrain parks, and I enjoyed every second of it.”
But growing up, Joe was hobbled by recurring ankle injuries that remained a constant in his life, and after yet another injury at 18 years-old he was diagnosed with a rare disease called Tenosynovial Giant Cell Tumor (TGCT) that caused tumors in his ankle and gradually eroded the cartilage in the joint. He was given the option of having his ankle fused, leaving him with a permanent limp and severely limited mobility, or amputation.
Joe said, “Given the option to fuse the bones together and never play sports again, or cut off my foot and play sports with a prosthetic, I chose amputation. I couldn’t give up the active lifestyle.”
He never regretted his decision.
Joe’s left foot bucket list
Throughout his journey to amputation, Joe amazingly kept up his spirits with family support and humor. Joe said, “In true Pleban fashion, my family started to make jokes about it immediately, from endless Halloween costume ideas to helping me get my first tattoo: a dotted line and scissors topped with “please cut here” on my ankle a month before my surgery.”
Joe decided to celebrate rather than mourn his final few weeks with his limbs intact. He created a Facebook page called, “The Last Adventures of Joe’s Left Foot” where he and his sister chronicled his exploits with his fiancé, Johnna, including music festivals, skydiving, paint balling, scuba diving, and much more.
The story went viral, and Joe was featured on news sites like Huffington Post, ABC News, Today, NBC Washington, People, Buzzfeed, and the NY Daily News.
Returning to his passion, snowboarding
Joe said it took a few years of recovery and additional surgeries before, “I was truly able to enjoy the benefits of having a robot leg.” Joe was delighted to begin snowboarding again, but wanted to reach for more.
He said, “I saw snowboarders competing at the X Games with prosthetic legs and thought, if they can do it, then I can do it. Soon after that, snowboarding made its debut in Sochi at the Paralympics, and that’s when l decided I’m going into the Paralympics for snowboarding.”
With help from a support squad of family, friends, and fellow para athletes, he returned to the slopes and started training in earnest in 2017. After two years of hard work and total devotion to snowboarding, he was named to the US Para Snowboard Team in 2019.
Representing Team USA in 2026
Joe was thrilled when he qualified for the Milano Cortina Paralympic Games to represent the USA. He said, “I’ve been representing the US at the World Cup level, but to do it at the Paralympic Games is pretty awesome.”
Stress to perform at this level when the whole world is literally watching is pretty intense, and Joe felt it saying, “Watching the camera pan across the starting gates, I’m thinking everyone at home is watching me. I 100% felt the stress and butterflies. We only get one day of training on the courses, then you have to hit it at full speed in competition.”
Joe competed in two events:
- Snowboard cross, a high-speed winter sport where four riders race simultaneously down a narrow, technical course featuring jumps, obstacles, banked turns, drops, and rollers.
- Banked slalom, where riders race individually down a winding, downhill course featuring high-banked turns, similar to a natural halfpipe or cross track.
Facing elite competitors from all over the world, Joe placed 8th in snowboard cross and 11th in banked slalom. The fact that he even competed in the second event is a sign of Joe’s grit. In his final run in snowboard cross, Joe wiped out and broke his wrist.
Joe praised Team USA after his injury saying, “all of a sudden, all these people just come out of the woodwork asking, ‘what do you need?’ When you’re on the road, especially in smaller sports like para snowboard, you feel like you’re a bit on your own, and you have to figure things out for yourself. But at the games, Team USA really came through.”
When Joe finally made it to the pinnacle of competition, he persevered and played through the pain. The medical team patched him up and casted his arm so he could compete in his second event.
Joe was elated about the spotlight being placed on Paralympic sports, noting that the 2026 Winter Olympics had a higher viewer rating than any previous games. He said, “when I started on my Paralympic journey, I thought the Paralympics were the paraplegic or paralyzed Olympics. But ‘para’ stands for parallel. And it’s cool when you feel like you are actually parallel to the Olympics, and you’re getting a ton of coverage. People are tuning in, and they’re realizing just how high-level of a sport it is.”
The Paralympic Village Experience
Like most athletes, Joe really savored his experiences in the Paralympic Village, where he fraternized with his teammates and competitors. He had a lot of fun goofing with his friends and teammates, creating TikTok videos of their camaraderie and the pure joy to be involved in such a world-wide spectacle.
He talked about all the Team USA swag he got and the “pin trade” culture at the Paralympics, where athletes would trade their country’s commemorative pins to other athletes. Allegedly, haggling was sometimes involved. Joe said, “I gave pins to people I appreciated or who did good deeds.”
Joe was delighted that his family could join him in Italy, including his four-year-old daughter who was born during the last Paralympic games. When one of the Aussie ‘boarders gave his daughter a stuffed “Lizzie the Lizard” mascot, Joe happily handed over a pin.
The Italians doted on Joe’s daughter who has blonde curls. He said, “She was just bonking around, being a kid and they were saying, ‘Bellissima, bella, bella.’ She got a bunch of the collectible pins. She had no idea what was going on, but she had a great time.”
Pilam Influence
Joe equated earning his Pilam letters to his journey in sports saying, “I had to put the work in to feel like I earned it. Even though snowboarding is an individual sport, we’re still part of Team USA. I think I gained a lot of that team spirit through fraternity.”
Joe made important connections at Pilam who supported him through his struggles and triumphs. He said, “There’s a core group that I still stay very close with that have been texting me throughout this process. They were with me through my amputation, and formative years, when you get to college and you’re trying to figure out who you are as a person.”
So, what about the 2030 Paralympics?
At 35 years old, Joe has his eyes set on competing in the French Alps 2030 Winter Paralympics. He even hinted at staying in the show until 2034, when the games will return to his home state of Utah. Snowboarding is Joe’s “fountain of youth.”
Go for gold, Joe! All of your Pilam brothers are rooting for you.