Team USA Nordic skier Grace Miller is tipped for a breakout performance in what will already be her second Winter Paralympics. The 22-year-old has been excitedly posting Beijing Games titbits on her social media, giving fans a glimpse of slick national team outfits, athlete’s village “smart” beds and 24/7 food supplies- but competing in the mainland holds a much deeper meaning. Born without a left forearm in Guangzhou, Miller was adopted by a single American mother at the age of three. She would go on to shine in the national biathlete and cross-country skiing scenes, before making her Paralympic debut as a high-schooler in Pyeongchang in 2018. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) Most impressive is that Miller, who has always batted aside notions that being born without half an arm is disadvantageous, is holding her own against world-class skiers with two arms and two poles. Here’s what you need to know about the outdoors-loving, “walking slice of humble pie” from Palmer, Alaska, who dreams of winning a medal in her birthplace. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) Biography Helena Grace Nan Zhi Miller was born on 29 September 1999 in Guangzhou, China. Kymberly Miller, a ski coach, adopted and brought her to her native Alaska in 2003. She would inevitably take her daughter to her first ski class a year later. Miller immediately showed promise in Nordic skiing having joined her secondary school team. She considers her last-ever state high school ski competition to be a career highlight, though also revealed to Team USA that she had quit the year before her senior year out of frustration. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) She would attend summer camps for young amputees, before meeting US Paralympics Nordic Skiing development staff at a clinic for physically impaired skiers. Miller made her Winter Paralympics debut in Pyeongchang in 2018 before her first year at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The then-18-year-old finished 10th in the 15km cross-country, 12th in the open 4x2.5km cross-country relay, and 16th and 18th in the 1.5km sprint and 7.5km cross-country, respectively. Sandwiching classes with morning and afternoon training in sub-zero temperatures was not easy, but a necessity for the national team. She started full-time training after deferring graduation in 2020. So fresh. So clean. 💯 The squad is ready for the #WinterParalympics . pic.twitter.com/zCYZJ1C0AG — Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 24, 2022 According to the official Paralympics website, Miller idolises trailblazing US Olympic champion cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, while coach Mikey Evans of her affiliated Palmer Ski Team is the most influential figure in her athletic career. Miller joins 13 other skiers and one personal guide making up Team USA’s Nordic skiing team for Beijing. They are hotly tipped to match or surpass their 16 medals earned (seven biathlon, nine cross-country skiing) in Pyeongchang. Recent competitive outings in familiar Bozeman, Montana and Soldier Hollow, Utah suggest Miller is peaking in time. However, chances of a medal will be slim given that her teammates Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch continued their domination at last month’s World Para Snow Sports Championships in Norway and World Cup in Sweden. Miller is a fan of virtually all outdoor activities, as seen on her social media, and can play the trumpet. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) Like mother, like daughter Mother Kymberly travelled to Guangdong Province for Miller’s adoption in 2003 in what was the child’s first encounter with a blonde-haired person, she told Anchorage Daily News . Miller was born with no left forearm due to the congenital disorder amniotic banding. Kymberly recalled the orphanage was made of stone and staff cared for their children albeit with little resources and heat. Miller is her only child. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) Miller’s original Chinese name was “Pan Nan Zhi”, two characters of which were carried through into her legal US name, according to Anchorage Daily News . Kymberly, who reportedly switched from skiing instructor and mountaineering guide to a critical care nurse, said spending time in the great outdoors helped to solidify their relationship. She insisted her daughter’s athletic success “is all Grace”. “It’s just me and my mom,” Miller told Team USA ahead of Pyeongchang. “I love it and hate it. I get all the attention all the time, which can be great, but other times it’s a lot of expectations. “But [my mother] is supporting me 100 per cent and always has dinner for me at all the random hours after training, which is amazing and wonderful. “She’s always been there for me, whatever I wanted to do, she’s always backed me. When she found out I was going to the Paralympics, she was so excited and cried so much. It was like seeing her dream fulfilled, too.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) ‘A walking slice of humble pie’ That Miller competes in a discipline traditionally requiring two hands with just one full arm is remarkable in itself. But coach Evans was even more impressed with her overall conduct and competitive mindset. “She’s a walking slice of humble pie,” Evans told Anchorage Daily News , recalling he and the team cried when he broke the news of her Paralympics call-up. Miller used her passport for the first time in a qualifier in Alberta, Canada the previous month. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grace Miller (@gracemillerak) “It’s always been harder, I guess,” Miller added. “I still only ski with one pole, so I can’t ski as fast as the others with two poles, which is frustrating at times.” Years before she was even in with a national team shout, Miller told KTVA, “I just say I was born without a hand, that’s it. Because I can do most things other people can do.” Once cross-country skiing became the priority, Miller picked her university based on the distance between her dorm room and ski courses and mountain ranges. She recalled 6am wake-ups in freezing temperatures in the dark for training, then attending lectures, before going back to the trails in the afternoon. “We have these duckbills – devices you put in your mouth to help warm up the air before you breath in, otherwise it will absolutely kill your lungs,” she told Team USA. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, she would be forced to train alone much of the summer, “which gets really boring” and “kind of sad”. Despite the truncated season and stop-start training, she is more confident than ever in her skiing abilities and physical condition for Beijing. “My performances [in Pyeongchang] definitely could have been better, but I wasn’t expecting much going into it because I was so new,” she told Team USA. “I’m a lot more confident in myself because I just have so much more fitness compared to what I did.” Miller competes in the cross-country distance on March 7, cross-country sprint on March 9, and cross country middle on March 12.