STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Muffy Davis has enough trophies and medals to hold down a hot air balloon in a Texas tornado.
Now she has another—that of 2020 Woman of the Year, awarded her by the Idaho Business Review.
“I’m immensely honored,” she said.
Muffy Davis grew up challenging Picabo Street on Bald Mountain before a 1989 ski accident at 16 left her paralyzed.
She went on to study human biology at Stanford University, then took up ski racing in a monoski after watching Street win a silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
Pretty soon, Davis was winning medals of her own. She won a bronze at the 1998 Winter Paralympics in Nagano and a few more medals at the 2002 Paralympics in Salt Lake City where she carried the torch during the opening ceremonies.
She won the coveted World Cup Championship for women’s monoskiing. And in 2012 she won three gold medals in handcycling at the London Summer Paralympics, setting a Guinness World Record in the process.
She has since gone on to become a motivational speaker, a liaison to the International Olympic Committee and a member of the international Paralympic committee. Not only does that role take her all over the world but she will serve on the Coordination Committee for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, checking on athletes as they come from their venues.
Last year she won a seat in the state legislature in a bid to provide more accessible and affordable health care for the citizens of Idaho.
Her first year in the legislature showed her how much work is needed to pave a better future for her fellow Idahoans.
“And, right now, the nasty politics in the nation’s Capitol is trickling down to the state level,” she said. “My main goal is the idea that we’ve got to work together to get things done. Fortunately, I’ve found some legislators across the aisle with whom I can have a rational conversation. But we need the parties to loosen up and be a little more flexible in their leadership to say, ‘This is an Idaho issue.’ We need to focus on saying, ‘This is Idaho stuff.’ ‘This is American stuff.’ ”
While it was the need for more accessible affordable medical care that inspired her to run, Davis has added Idaho’s children to the top of her agenda.
“There are children who don’t have any rights. I’ve heard of multiple cases where parents’ rights top theirs,” she said. “I want to protect these children from abusive or dysfunctional parents. The children need to have a voice. They need to have rights.”