Utah businesses involved in helping Paralympic athletes win gold medals this week
Sep 4, 2024, 7:27 PM
SALT LAKE CITY — For an athlete, there is nothing like hearing your country’s anthem played after winning gold.
Even though Wednesday morning was the eighth time Oksana Masters has heard the United States anthem in her Paralympic career, it never gets old.
She earned the gold medal after winning a grueling ParaCycling race in Paris
“When it hurt the most, that is when the race starts and that is when to push through because if I am hurting there, everyone is hurting there and I wanted to capitalize on that moment,” Masters said.
She is used to pushing through pain and credits a product made by a Utah company to help her.
Gold medalist Oksana Masters, of Team USA, poses for a photo during the ParaCycling Road Women’s H4-5 Individual Time Trial Medal Ceremony on the seventh day of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games on Sept. 4, 2024 in Paris, France. (Michael Steele, Getty Images)
What is KT Tape?
“If you want to talk about grit and endurance and what we stand for here, she personifies that,” said Zach Decker, chief marketing officer for KT Tape. “She has used our product a long time.”
KT Tape, based in American Fork, makes a type of athletic tape many athletes use.
The tape isn’t just for pain relief, but the company said athletes use it to help with recovery from injuries as well.
“KT Tape lifts the skin and part of that lifting the skin is lifting the muscle fascia attached to the skin, so we create more volume, more space, for blood flow to happen,” Decker said.
KT Tape isn’t the only Utah company whose athlete won a gold medal this week.
Just a few days ago, Matt Stutzman, who shoots arrows with his legs because he doesn’t have any arms or hands, won gold in archery.
Matt Stutzman, of Team USA, competes against Nathan MacQueen of Team Great Britain in the ParaArchery Men’s Individual Compound Open Quarterfinal on the fourth day of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games on Sept. 1, 2024 in Paris, France. (Alex Davidson, Getty Images)
Easton Archery
“He is the armless archer. That is what he goes by. Great guy. And he started shooting archery because he couldn’t get a job and he wanted to feed his family,” said Greg Easton.
Easton is the CEO of Easton Archery based in Salt Lake City. Easton is also proud Stutzman uses Easton products, particularly an arrow, many high-level archers use.
“The X10 arrow is probably the longest-lived high-performance product in the Olympics,” Easton said. “Every couple of years they come out with a new swimsuit, or they come out with new shoes or something. That arrow continues to dominate at that level.”
It is another way Utah is tied to the Games, where an athlete’s success means success for many businesses as well.
Masters has now won 18 Paralympic medals in her career.
There are two more events she will be competing in before the Paris Paralympics closing ceremony.
“It is a really proud moment for us,” said Decker. “We are proud she continues to use our product and compete at the highest level.”
