Olympic Skier Colby Stevenson Celebrates 10-Year 'Rebirth' After He 'Shattered Skull' in Near-Death Accident

The pro skier emphasized, "Don’t let your past limit what’s possible in the present. Stay in the moment. Push your limits. Tell your people what they mean to you. Can’t believe how lucky I am to live this life with family and friends who truly GET IT!! Now, more life to all of you. Sorry for the gore."

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Colby Stevenson in the hospital after 2016 car crash.
Credit: Colby Stevenson/Instagram

One decade ago, Stevenson found himself driving nearly 500 miles from a freeski event at Mount Hood in Oregon, where he'd won best truck and was named the week's best skier, when his eyes grew heavy at the wheel.

Stevenson was driving his friend John Michael Fabrizi, who had broken his leg at the event, back home to Utah when he crashed.

"I didn’t know what happened," Stevenson recalled in an interview with Olympics.com. "All of a sudden, boom," he said of the moment, adding, "I woke up in a hospital bed with my loved ones around me."

Fabrizi was miraculously left unharmed, while Stevenson was hanging on for his life. The truck flipped over multiple times, the roof collapsed, he had 30-plus fractures in his skull and he had swelling in his brain that left doctors unsure if he would make a complete recovery.

Colby Stevenson celebrates winning silver in the freestyle skiing men's freeski big air victory ceremony at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Credit: Colby Stevenson/Instagram

Stevenson, who was put in three-days of medically-induced coma, eventually returned home with his mom to recover. He thought his skiing career was over, but Stevenson "didn’t have a back-up plan," and was hellbent on returning to the sport he loved.

Five months later, he did against unfavorable odds. In January 2017, he won his first World Cup victory in slopestyle in Seiser Alm, Italy.

"Eight months after my car accident, and I was coming back into skiing and just didn't have many expectations," he recalled to PEOPLE exclusively of the milestone win. "I was just feeling lucky to be alive still and have the chance to ski at that level."

"I've just taken that lesson and tried to put it into every part of my life and not take a moment for granted," he said. "Nothing can really throw me off my rocker now as long as I'm alive. It's like you heal from injuries, I've had numerous injuries since then, and think everything happens for a reason."

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