Former Shriners Children’s Patient Dani Aravich Named Social Media Contractor for Team USA at Paris 2024

Former Shriners Children’s Salt Lake City and Spokane patient Dani Aravich made her first visit to the nonprofit healthcare system when she was just 4 months old.

Since then, she’s accomplished a tremendous amount, including competing in both the 2021 Summer and 2022 Winter Paralympics. This summer, she stepped away from the track and earned a role as a social media contractor to create content across various platforms for Team USA in Paris, all while training for the 2026 Winter Paralympics, where she hopes to compete in Nordic skiing and biathlon.

Aravich was born without a left hand and forearm, and she was fit for her first prosthetic when she was just 4 months old. She then wore her first myoelectric arm, a device that operates based on electrical signals from the residual limb, that Shriners Children’s provided for an upper arm limb difference around 1999. Aside from the prosthetic care that helped her compete in different sports while growing up, Aravich also got to interact with other children with limb differences at Shriners Children’s, a hugely important experience for her. Aravich, now 28, has recently volunteered over the past few years in various roles with the nonprofit healthcare system to give back.

“There was a group of families with kids that had limb differences that you could hang out with when I went to Shriners Children’s,” Aravich said. “That’s the first time I met someone else with a disability while growing up. It made me realize, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of people out here also missing limbs.’ Sometimes growing up, you felt isolated as someone with a limb difference. Recently when I was living in Salt Lake City, I volunteered at the Shriners Children’s ski camp. It was cool to be with kids with a variety of disabilities. In 2018 when I volunteered at the hospital, I knew we had a stash of the Barbie with a prosthetic. There was a 13-year-old girl and I got to give her one of the Barbies with a prosthetic leg. It’s cool to be in that environment and to see the kids at the ski camp form connections between each other.”

Aravich said she hopes to return to the Summer Games in 2028 but wanted to focus on the 2026 Winter Paralympics because of the challenge of flipping between track and skiing training. However, Aravich will still have a role in Paris this summer. She’ll work with Team USA and Team USA sponsors to create social media content, highlighting athletes and the Parisian lifestyle. Aravich will also travel to Paris before the Games to help advocate for the 2034 Salt Lake City Olympic and Paralympic bid with all-time great Lindsey Vonn.

Aravich emphasized for any current or former Shriners Children’s patient who wants to get into athletics that it’s important to find something they love.

“For athletes with disabilities, the biggest barrier is prosthetics,” Aravich said. “The fact that Shriners Children’s provides prosthetics regardless of a family’s ability to pay can help catapult other children into those sports because of the high-quality prosthetic care. It’s important to find a sport you love, but it’s also important to convey the message that not everyone is going to be a Paralympian. I think it’s only worth it if you truly enjoy what you do. Having a prosthetic or piece of equipment to play recreationally is extremely important. It means so much to them. It’s cool to see your dreams change. Even if you’re not a Paralympian, you’re going to go do great in a career or do excellent in school.”