Paralympic Games: Utah-made prosthetics, local technician ‘saving the day’ for athletes

WEST VALLEY CITY — Products from a Utah manufacturing facility plus one of the facility’s employees are playing a critical role in helping adaptive athletes during the high stakes of competition at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. 

Blasting into carbon fiber, a large machine slowly and carefully cuts out copies of oblong shapes, spitting out water into a large pool around it. 

An employee diligently keeps track of the machine, which is in a room at the Ottobock facility in West Valley City. 

Not far from that workstation, the sound of a heat torch fires up as another employee smooths the rubber surface of a large mold. 

Next to that area, a different worker drives a scissor lift down an isle filled floor-to-ceiling with thousands of molds, lifting the platform to reach and select the right one. 

Each of stations contributes to creating a leg and foot prosthetic for Ottobock, and some of the products recently made were shipped to Paris. 

‘Thousands of repairs’ 

Prosthetist Jeff Waldmuller explained the various products they’ve developed. 

“On the table, I have variety of running feet,” he said, looking down at various carbon fiber prosthetic products, designed and shaped in slightly different ways for specific uses. 

Waldmuller described how the German company designs and manufactures prosthetics around the world, but one of Ottobock’s largest manufacturing facilities is in Utah 

“We’re developing all kinds of new technologies, new components that will go into various people’s prosthetic limbs,” he said. “And these are some that will be actually competing in Paris.” 

Ottobock has set up an 18,000 square foot facility in the Paris Paralympic Village, Waldmuller said, with service technicians on site at different facilities for warmups and competitions. 

He explained how the company sends prosthetics and parts from Utah to make sure athletes don’t lose their shot at a medal, simply because a prosthetic failed. 

Waldmuller is trading the Utah facility for the Paralympic Village one, as part of the staff who will “make thousands of repairs” over the course of the Paralympic Games. 

“When you’re at the absolute peak of your performance, you’re going to break things,” he said. 

Many of these fixes come during an athlete’s most crucial moments, when the countdown clock to competition is ticking. 

“It never fails that the issues that happen are always like one hour before a competition, and it’s a job that takes six hours and a staff of 40 people to fix,” Waldmuller said. “But somehow, we manage to just get it done.” 

‘They saved the day’ 

Two-time Paralympian Santiago Vega knows that pressure all too well. While competing in Alpine Skiing in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, he described how he went to adjust screws in his prosthetic before race day, and realized they were stripped. 

He said his prosthetic is an extension of his body, and any issues could make or break a race or training. 

“You’re training the whole season for two minutes,” he said. “So, if your leg were to fail during those two minutes, it would be a bummer.” 

Desperate to get it fixed, Santiago remembered at first trying to see if a local mechanic could help in Sochi. 

He worried he wouldn’t be able to compete. 

“That’s the worst part,” he said. “You feel really helpless, like there’s nothing you can do.” 

Thankfully, Santiago found out about the Ottobock facility. He explained that technicians not only replaced the failing screws, but they also found issues with other screws that they quickly remedied. 

“The guys at Ottobock were able to fix it quickly, in a span of 15 minutes. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, no problem, sit down.’ And they had it done,’” Santiago remembered. “They kind of saved the day for, for me.” 

‘Opening the gates of freedom’ 

That is Waldmuller’s job in Paris. 

The service technician did the same thing for the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, saying the team made around 4,800 repairs in a four-week span. 

He said they do many wheelchair repairs including working on specialized equipment like javelin throwing chairs and wheelchair rugby, as well as servicing a variety of running feet. 

He said all repairs and replacements are made free of charge. 

“Being able to allow these individuals opportunity to perform at their absolute best is really, it’s just so important to us,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re on site, should anything go wrong.” 

As an adaptive athlete himself, Waldmuller indicated he has a deeper understanding of the nuances of working with prosthetics. 

He also understands how important it is to have a prosthetic in the absolute best working order in order to be active and compete. 

“It’s like opening the gates of freedom, it’s just so amazing,” he said. 

As Waldmuller makes fixes on the fly with parts from Utah, he talked about having a sense of pride in ultimately helping athletes go for gold. 

“We’re not just participating at the Paralympic Games, we are competing at the Paralympic Games,” Waldmuller said. “It is such an incredible thing to be a part of and to watch, and it’s just amazing.”