HELENA — A member of Helena’s Last Chance Curling Club is heading to the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Winter Games in Italy.
Katie Verderber is one of five Americans selected to represent Team USA in wheelchair mixed curling in March. Verderber qualified for the team following a months-long process stretching back to August, which she said included many rounds of selection camps, competitions and traveling.
Verderber said 12 athletes attended a final selection camp in Minnesota, where USA Curling is headquartered. She called the moment she found out she’d made the national team “incredible.”
“It was very surreal,” Verderber told MTN Sports on Tuesday. “I think it kind of took a moment to sink in. I was the last name of the five read off, and so I was really excited for a couple of my other teammates who made the team.
“And I was so excited for them that it didn’t really dawn on me that they read my name off, and that it was going to be me (on the team).”
Verderber is a medically retired army veteran. In 2019, she suffered a back injury in Afghanistan that required multiple rounds of surgery — but doctors were unable to correct the damage to her spine.
“I was medically retired from the army in September of 2023,” Verderber recalled. “And then two weeks later, I had an emergency surgery to try to repair some ongoing trauma that had continued. And, unfortunately, it was too late at that point to repair the damage to my spine. So, from Oct. 3, 2023, I've been paralyzed and in a wheelchair since then.”
Verderber first tried curling in April 2024 at a VA-sponsored winter sports clinic for disabled veterans in Aspen, Colo. Verderber said she arrived at the clinic with the singular focus of returning to the ski slopes — but she left with a newfound love of curling.
“I couldn’t have thrown that many stones, and I was approached by a gentleman who was involved with the Paralympic team,” said Verderber. “And he had asked me if I was interested in doing this.
“I gave him my number not expecting to ever get a call back. And they called me a couple weeks later and brought me down to Denver for the first identification camp. And I loved it.”
Verderber said she hopes her story and continued accomplishments can inspire others.
“I want to bring awareness to similarly situated persons and hope that my story encourages just one person to go out there and try something new,” said Verderber. “It’s hard to believe I found out two years ago I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life to learning I’m going to be a Paralympian. Anything is possible.”
