Episode Details

Hope Bevelheimer:
I play para, I talk to you about …. we’re in a sled.

Anthony Godfrey:
No one has beaten you at net in international competition.

Hope Bevelheimer:
Correct. I'm a three-time world gold medalist. Living, breathing, sweating hockey from all year. Amputation wasn't the end for me, it was just the beginning. But it could have been the end for me if I chose to have a PDN.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She is a motivational speaker, an amputee, an athlete, a humanitarian, and a goalie for the gold medal-winning USA para ice hockey team. On this episode of the Supercast, we meet West Jordan High School graduate Hope Bevelheimer. We hear Hope's inspirational story of tragic challenges in life, leading her to hard-earned triumphs. And you'll find out what happens when we hit the ice with this elite athlete.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at the Accord Ice Center to talk with Hope and Austin about hockey. Introduce yourselves a little bit and let's get into it.

Hope Bevelheimer:
My name is Hope Bevelheimer. I played for the para ice hockey women's team. So I play in a sled and I'm a three-time world gold medalist.

Austin Facer:
I'm Austin Facer. I've never won a gold medal in anything. I do a podcast called SLC Puck and just a local hockey content creator doing all kinds of goofy stuff with hockey here in Utah.

Anthony Godfrey.
Hope, how did you get started in hockey?

Hope Bevelheimer:
It was prior, I'm an amputee, it was prior to my amputation. I was born with club feet so I had more braces. I couldn't walk much. It was a lot of pain and stuff like that. And so my roommate at the time, she was a recreational therapist actually for the Salt Lake County. And so she had an adaptive program that they were starting and piloting back in 1999 and wanted to see if I wanted to participate. So I got in a sled of September 1999.

Anthony Godfrey:
Playing hockey since the 1900s.

Hope Bevelheimer:
Yes. For us, older generation, yes, the 1900s.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right. And you went to West Jordan High School.

Hope Bevelheimer:
Correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk to me about your time at West Jordan High.

Hope Bevelheimer:
Well, I was a little different student. I had 29 surgeries before I had amputated. So all my high school, junior high and school years were spent in and out of the hospital. And so I had a lot of support from the school teachers and things like that. They would show up at my house on a Monday. I wasn't homeschooled. I called it hospital schooled. They would show up at my school/house on Monday, give me a load of the work, teach me if they needed to teach me, and then come back on Friday, pick up all the work, and then give me tests and all that stuff. And then when I was in school, very supportive. I had to be in a wheelchair sometimes. I know-- I don't know if West Jordan still has it, but there was an elevator. So I had a key to the elevator, like all sorts of things.

Anthony Godfrey:
There is an elevator, yes.

Hope Bevelheimer:
So I was an elevator rider, all those things, but they made accommodations for me. And it was difficult because we didn't have Google. We didn't have all that stuff back when I was going into school. I graduated in '95, so