These Paralympians inspire their workplace colleagues to pursue richer lives outside the office

Paralympians Oyuna Uranchimeg and Sean O’Neill have a passion for life that rubs off on the people they work with.

[Source Photo: Freepik]

If you walked into Oyuna Uranchimeg’s office at the University of St. Thomas’ emerging media department, you’d see a poster from the Beijing 2022 Olympics and two other tokens of Olympic memorabilia. It’s not something you’d likely think twice about.  She’s not the only person to have sports-themed office decorations. What you won’t know—unless you’re told—is that Uranchimeg is herself a Paralympian.

She competed in Wheelchair Curling for Team USA in 2022, and will do so again in the 2026 Games. But that hasn’t stopped her from working full-time for the university’s emerging media department as an administrative assistant.

She’s the department’s problem solver. People file into Uranchimeg’s office all day with an array of different questions. When the department needed to add adjunct professors to take on an expanding course load, Uranchimeg was the one that was on top of the contracts. If a student or faculty member is having an issue with a new online resource, she’s the one who they go to.

“She’s the person that everybody sends their folks to,” department chair Dr. Peter Gregg says. “Let’s see if Oyuna can help, or let’s get in touch with Oyuna. So she’s essential to what we do.”

Uranchimeg didn’t start curling until 2016, but within just six years, she was on the biggest stage in the sport. It didn’t surprise Gregg.

“Oyuna is a pretty extraordinary person,” Gregg said. “So there’s not a lot that she could do that would surprise me.”

 And she’s not the only Paralympian who works full time outside of their training.

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