Mason Branstrator’s idea of “picking up speed” looks a little different these days.
Three years after a skiing accident left him paralyzed, the former athlete isn’t just adapting to life in a wheelchair — he’s outpacing expectations, one marathon at a time. “I was going for an ordinary day of downhill skiing, but this time, it was a lot different,” Mason said. The Minnesota teen, then 17, had tackled slopes countless times, but a miscalculated jump changed everything.
“I remember thinking right as I left the jump, ‘I’m going a little fast.’ And that was the last thing I remember before everything went black.” Waking up paralyzed from the waist down, Mason faced a shocking new reality. “In the ICU, multiple doctors came into my room and said, ‘Mason, you might not be able to walk again.’ And in the eyes and mind of somebody who was 17, I had no idea what was going on. That was devastating,” he said.
Mason Branstrator adjusts his wheelchair. Photo by Branstrator
After nine days in intensive care, he transferred to Colorado’s Craig Hospital, a leader in paralysis rehab, where he spent months rebuilding strength — and perspective. It was there that Mason first encountered what he now calls his “freedom machine.” “The first time I got in a wheelchair in rehab, I felt so free,” he said. “In this really hard situation, you’re given freedom and independence. And I’ve always been so grateful for my wheelchair. even if others can’t always understand it. He acknowledges that their reaction can be negative at times.
… People look at the wheelchair and say, ‘That sucks. It’s awful to be limited to using a wheelchair.’ But this wheelchair doesn’t limit me. It’s actually my freedom.”
That shift in mindset propelled him forward. After returning home as high school homecoming king, Mason enrolled at the University of Denver, where he now mentors others at Craig Hospital. Daily tasks — like hoisting his wheelchair into his modified minivan or navigating stairs backward — require grit, but he tackles them with humor. “Now I just zoom everywhere,” he said.
His biggest pivot came when he embraced adaptive sports. “Around a year and a half after my accident, I had come to the point of realizing that walking was not going be a very functional thing for me to keep pursuing and it was time to look into everything else the wheelchair world had to offer,” Mason said. “I had all of these people giving me offers to come play adaptive sports and try them out but I was pushing it back. And I finally realized it’s time to just live life.”
Mason with family and friends. Photo by mason_branstrator/Instagram
Live he does: swimming, wheelchair basketball, and even surfing strapped to a kayak in California. Last month, he crossed the finish line at Minnesota’s Grandma’s Marathon in a custom racing chair, clocking in at 2:03:52. “I’ve had to learn that speed looks different now,” he said.
But perhaps his most unexpected victory? Becoming a social media inspiration. What began as a way to connect with others with disabilities blossomed into a platform with nearly 270,000 followers. “When I was 17, on my way home from a fishing trip with my dad, I remember telling him I had this dream of helping people, but I had no idea how I would get there,” Mason said.
Now, videos of his “ordinary” routines — transferring out of bed, diving into pools — resonate widely. “And then, it just kept evolving and more people caught on to my story — people who weren’t paralyzed started being inspired. And I just loved doing it,” he added.
