“That was my first experience kind of the first time being away from home, being away from Mom and Dad,” Pauls said. “That was definitely weird. I was a super shy kid, I didn’t really talk a whole lot. And then the next year I came back, and my coach kind of looked at me after one of the games, and was like, ‘Man, when you came here last year, you were one of the worst players out there, and now, like, you’re one of the best.’ That was the kind of moment where I was like, ‘All right, maybe I have a future in this.’”
Kevin McKee, who is one of Pauls’ best friends and has won three Paralympic gold medals, met him at the U.S. development camp and said he could also tell right away he was meant for big things.
“He’s a couple of years younger that me, but even at that time you could tell that he just had the drive and the willpower to do whatever it took to get there,” McKee said. “At that time, a young kid, just energy, just wanting to go. That was kind of his role when he first made the national team was on the third line, just give energy for the team at the time, and I think he was perfect for it.”
Sled hockey was invented at a rehab center in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1960s. It was introduced at the 1994 Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and has been there ever since. Players are in sleds that sit on top of two hockey skate blades and use two sticks, which have metal picks on the butt end, to help propel themselves.
And like in the men’s and women’s ice hockey tournaments at the 2026 Olympics, there will be plenty of action and hitting in the Paralympics — with one big difference.
“When the men and women get hit into the into the boards, the glass moves. The boards don’t,” Pauls said. “We’re not tall enough to get hit into the glass, so the hits are fierce. And, I mean, it’s so fast, it’s so much faster in person. I’ve never seen anybody come out of a live sled hockey game and been like, ‘Eh, that was OK.’ Everybody’s always enthralled with it.”
Pauls got his first taste of international sled hockey at the 2009 World Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic. At age 16, he was the youngest member of the gold medal winning team. The next year, he made his first appearance in the Paralympic Games, winning the first of four straight gold medals for the United States, repeating the feat in 2014 (Sochi), 2018 (PyeongChang), and 2022 (Beijing). He was captain of the team in 2018 and 2022 and will be captain again in Milan.
“He’s just matured and became such a great leader for our team,” McKee said. “To me, he’s the best captain we’ve ever had.”
The longest-tenured U.S. national sled team player in his 17th season, Pauls has represented his country in the World Championships 10 times (seven gold medals) and played in 15 Para Hockey Cups (11 first-place finishes).
And now he is going for another Olympic gold, trying to follow up what the U.S. men and women did in Milan.
