Sandy Dukat

Sandy Dukat

Personal information
Nationality	American
Born	(1972-05-03) May 3, 1972 (age 45) Canton, Ohio, USA
Sport
Sport	Alpine skiing, triathlon, distance running
Disability	Above-knee amputee
Medal record Representing the  United States Women's Alpine skiing Paralympic Games 2002 Salt Lake Slalom LW2 2002 Salt Lake Super-G LW2 2006 Torino Slalom standing IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships 2004 Wildschonau Downhill 2004 Wildschonau Super-G 2004 Wildschonau Giant slalom Women's Paratriathlon ITU Triathlon World Championships 2008 Vancouver AWAD PC2 USA Paratriathlon National Championships 2007 Above Knee 2008 Above Knee 2009 TRI-2 2010 TRI-2
Updated on February 6, 2013.

Sandra "Sandy" Dukat (born May 3, 1972) is an American Paralympic athlete. Born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, she had her right leg amputated above the knee at the age of four. She has competed internationally in alpine skiing, swimming and triathlon. As of February 2013^[update], she holds the marathon world record for above-knee amputee women.

Dukat grew up competing in able-bodied sports. She played basketball, high-jumped and was on her high school swim team. When she called the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) looking for an amputee support group, she found out about their sports teams. It was only then that she learned that Paralympic sport existed.

In 1996, Dukat joined the swim team at the RIC. In 1997, she won 2 silver and 1 bronze medals at the USA National Championships, and won her classification at the National 5K Disabled Open Water Invitational. She was named to the US Disabled Swim Team in 1998. At the 1998 Disabled World Swimming Championships, she broke the then S9 American record in the 800 metre freestyle event and was co-captain of the US Team. She did not, however, make finals at the meet.

Dukat first became interested in skiing in 1997, after attending the Disabled Sports USA Hartford Ski Spectacular. She started to ski in the RIC Paralympic Sports Program, then committed to training 6 months of each year at the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Colorado. Dukat won two bronze medals for alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City and one bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin. At the 2004 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, she won bronze medals in 3 events, Downhill, Giant slalom and Super-G. She had success in the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup, achieving many podium finishes; in the 2003-2004 season, she finished fifth overall.

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