These Paralympians inspire their workplace colleagues to pursue richer lives outside the office

If you walked into Oyuna Uranchimeg’s office at the University of St. Thomas’ emerging media department, you’d see a poster from the Beijing 2022 Olympics and two other tokens of Olympic memorabilia. It’s not something you’d likely think twice about.  She’s not the only person to have sports-themed office decorations. What you won’t know—unless you’re told—is that Uranchimeg is herself a Paralympian.

She competed in Wheelchair Curling for Team USA in 2022, and will do so again in the 2026 Games. But that hasn’t stopped her from working full-time for the university’s emerging media department as an administrative assistant.

She’s the department’s problem solver. People file into Uranchimeg’s office all day with an array of different questions. When the department needed to add adjunct professors to take on an expanding course load, Uranchimeg was the one that was on top of the contracts. If a student or faculty member is having an issue with a new online resource, she’s the one who they go to.

“She’s the person that everybody sends their folks to,” department chair Dr. Peter Gregg says. “Let’s see if Oyuna can help, or let’s get in touch with Oyuna. So she’s essential to what we do.”

Uranchimeg didn’t start curling until 2016, but within just six years, she was on the biggest stage in the sport. It didn’t surprise Gregg.

“Oyuna is a pretty extraordinary person,” Gregg said. “So there’s not a lot that she could do that would surprise me.”

 And she’s not the only Paralympian who works full time outside of their training.

From hobby to Team USA

Austin Anderson knew Sean O’Neill from their days at Harvard Law School. He thought of O’Neill as a “successful and competent person,” and recommended him for a position at his law firm, Anderson & Kreiger in Boston. They’d kept up from time to time over the last decade, and Anderson knew that O’Neill had picked up curling as a hobby.

“I was thinking more like weekend bowling league level stuff,” Anderson says.

In March, O’Neill will be going to the Paralympics as part of Team USA Wheelchair Curling. He’s one of approximately 665 athletes from 50 countries that will compete in one of six adaptive sports at the 14th winter Paralympic Games. 

His coworkers didn’t know that this was a possibility until he told them that he needed to travel to go to Paralympic tryouts.

Another coworker, Libby Bowker, remembers O’Neill telling her that he was into curling around the time they first met, but had to “peel back the layers,” over the next few months to learn he was competing at a world-class level.

Just before Thanksgiving, O’Neill was selected for the Paralympic team, and since then, he says he’s been traveling every other week. Whether it’s international trips or trips to Wisconsin or Minnesota, he hasn’t been in the office a ton.

Despite spending his mornings on the curling ice when on these trips, O’Neill comes right back to his computer and works asynchronously and remotely. Instead of draining his energy, these weeks are what O’Neill lives for.

“Activities can reinforce each other and build momentum of a kind,” O’Neill says. “When I’m at a training camp and have a great day of training, and then the next day I’m working on a brief all day, and then I’m kind of jacked up from doing that and have a great training day the next day. I think it all feeds off of each other.”

Kombucha instead of coffee

He doesn’t need caffeine. Only a kombucha in the morning. But that powers him to accomplish two full days of work within a single day.

“I can curl in the morning until 2 o’clock,” O’Neill says. “And still have plenty of time to put in a full day’s work. I come off the ice not necessarily tired, but often energized, and needing an outlet for that energy. It’s not much else that I’m looking to do at that point other than putting some time working.”

He’s just another member of the team. He commutes from Cape Cod to Anderson & Kreiger’s downtown Boston office. When Anderson asks him for help around the office, he doesn’t feel like he’s bothering a world-class athlete, but it certainly impacts the way that he views O’Neill from a general perspective.

“I’ve developed a new appreciation for the dedication and that work he’s putting into (curling),” Anderson said. “I think I’m a little bit more in awe of him than I used to be.”

The job of a lawyer is high-stakes, high-pressure, and intense. It’s time consuming and stress inducing. Many get sucked into a cycle of endless work and don’t find time for themselves.

Watching O’Neill at the Paralympics has proven to his coworkers that your life doesn’t have to be all about work. Bowker has been inspired to find her hobbies again. She rediscovered her love for photography, going outside with the camera and just taking pictures. It won’t take her to the Paralympics, but it doesn’t have to in order to improve her quality of life.

“I feel like a lot of people abandon interest and personal pursuits especially in their 30s and 40s,” Bowker says. “It definitely has been an inspiration to go back into what I like to do.”

“Seeing how wildly different his life is now than like five years ago or when he was in law school, or when he was doing all this important public interest work on the Cape, this is just a totally different, unexpected thing, and it really is inspiring,” Bowker continued. “It does make me wonder, what else is out there? What more can I do? It seems like potential is really limitless, and he’s kind of a walking-talking example of that.”

O’Neill struggles with the idea of being an inspiration simply for being a wheelchair user. But he appreciates when people can draw that feeling from his double passions.

“The idea of committing to something, whether it’s a hobby, or something you’re driven to get in at the highest level at, or a hobby that turns into that,” O’Neill says. “I think there’s a lot to be said for finding that commitment, finding that drive. Finding other aspects of life, communities, other spaces where you can flourish.”

Part of a larger community

This month, Uranchimeg and O’Neill will be teammates for Team USA Wheelchair Curling in the Milan Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games, which begin March 6. Both St. Thomas and Anderson & Kreiger are looking forward to seeing their coworker compete for Paralympic glory.

In 2022, NBC reached out to St. Thomas to put a camera in their viewing party so it could be shown over the air. Gregg is expecting to do the same once again.

“We got a big room with a large projection screen,” Gregg said. “And we brought in a bunch of faculty and students and members of the community and watched her team play. It was really convivial and exciting, and a great bonding moment for us.”

Gregg said that it bonded students and faculty in ways that don’t typically occur in academia, all coming together to cheer for one of their own on the big screen.

“That’s an important part of being a member of a community,” he added. “I think it’s in the spirit of the Olympics. This idea that we’re all people, and let’s celebrate our excellence as humans.”

Meanwhile, in Boston, the Anderson & Kreiger team has really leaned into it. Van Dyke says that there is a firm function planned for O’Neill to teach his coworkers all about wheelchair curling and show them how to curl.

“He promised that he was going to take us curling,” Bowker added. “And I’m going to hold him to it.”

Anderson said that there are plans for viewing parties and a send-off celebration before O’Neill goes off on the plane.

“Every time it comes up,” Anderson said. “It’s like you’re shaking your head, can’t believe it’s happening, ‘how awesome is that?’ Because again, he’s the last guy you’d expect it from because he’s so down to earth and self-deprecating.”

Those two aren’t the only ones that will have their offices buzzing. A few of their Team USA Wheelchair Curling teammates also work full-time jobs. Wisconsin’s Matthew Thums is an accountant, and Montana’s Katie Verderber, like O’Neill, is a lawyer.

For a few days, they’ll be the pride and joy of the country, performing on national television for all to see. Then, they’ll fade back into anonymity, back in the office, helping their coworkers.

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