Ott, a student at Petrova Elementary School, was cheering on para-athletes as they pushed off onto the bobsled track on training day for the Para Sport National Championship, held in Lake Placid this weekend.

Minutes earlier, she had watched as the para-athletes lifted themselves out of their wheelchairs or removed their prosthetic legs to get onto their sleds. Now, she was watching them whizz down the hill on bobsleds and skeleton sleds, reaching speeds of 80-miles-per-hour.

Ott was invited to watch by Paul Wylie, an Olympic figure skater who won silver in the 1992 Olympics. He had visited Petrova Elementary School earlier this month to talk with students about the Olympic Regional Development Authority’s Jump, Aim, Glide and Slide program, which gets young athletes into Olympic sports.

He said Allie had a “great question” — how could she get into these sports in a wheelchair? He knew the Para Sport National Championship was coming up, so he invited her to see how.

Allie Ott could not contain her excitement as she realized the lights in the Mount Van Hoevenberg lodge form Olympic rings. On Wednesday, she was invited there to see how other athletes in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs compete in sliding sports. To her right stands her brother, Ethan. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

“It was meant to be,” Wylie said.

Allie was nearly speechless when she met Wylie again on Wednesday — nearly.

“I am so excited,” she shouted. “I’m going to be running all over this place like I had a sugar rush.”

Before watching them slide, Ott had gotten the chance to meet with the athletes in the lodge.

“There is so many people in wheelchairs in front of me right now,” Ott exclaimed.

Allie Ott, left, shakes hands with David Christopher, a bobsledder who, like her, is in a wheelchair. Paul Wylie, behind, had invited Ott to watch how para-athletes compete in sliding sports. “I was in the Army for 26 years,” Christopher told Allie. “And I’m a 10-year-old,” Allie responded. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Ott has cerebral palsy. Her mother, Kara, said she doesn’t see many people in wheelchairs like her’s around and had never met a para-bobsledder before.

“I’m very excited to meet them,” Allie said before going up the mountain. “VERY excited. All capitals.”

The para-athletes talked with her and swapped stories about living and doing sports in wheelchairs. They got a kick out of Allie’s purple wheelchair, which she’s named “Buttons.”

“It’s a great experience for her to see people in mobility devices being athletes,” Allie’s father Dan said. “She can do anything she wants.”

Allie is a very athletic 10-year-old. She skied for the first time in an adaptive alpine skiing race at Whiteface during the Empire State Winter Games last year and won gold. She has taken ballet classes at the Dance Sanctuary in Saranac Lake and she wants to learn guitar.

Allie Ott, left, fist-bumps Austin Parker, who flew out from California to compete in the Para Sport National Championship at the Mount Van Hoevenberg bobsled track this weekend. Ott, who is in a wheelchair, said she’s never seen so many people in wheelchairs in front of her at the same time, and they were all athletes. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Austin Parker, from California, said it’s because he can’t move his legs — not in spite of it — that he was at the bobsled track on Wednesday.

Parker raced motorcycles for 20 years and was injured in a crash five years ago. He lost the use of his legs, but not his desire to move fast and the joy that comes with it.

“It’s exhilarating,” he said of sliding.

A friend told him about the para-bobsledding opportunities. Now, he can’t imagine life before his injury.

Though it’s hard sometimes, living with an injury, he said it’s opened opportunities for him to do things like bobsledding.

Allie Ott gives Chris Tarte a thumbs-up as he pushes off from Start One at the Mount Van Hoevenberg bobsled run on Wednesday. Ott was invited up to see how other athletes in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs compete in sliding sports. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Allie’s class aide Carolyn Lawless and Physical Education teacher Beth Sullivan helped set up the meeting at the bobsled track.

“I can’t believe it’s my job,” Lawless said.

Allie said when her mother told her she was going to visit with the para-athletes, “I was screaming my head off.”

Allie’s excitement brought a smile to the face of everyone at the track that day.

“She’s like the coolest 10-year-old ever,” Mount Van Hoevenberg Guest Services Supervisor Susie Taylor said.

Will Castillo, the captain of the U.S. parabobsled team, speaks with Allie Ott by Start One of the Mount Van Hoevenberg bobsled run on Wednesday. Paul Wylie, behind, had invited Ott to watch how para-athletes compete in sliding sports. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

As Allie cheered the para-athletes on, shouting their names and “You can do this!” she said she hopes one day, she can get the chance to do it too.

Allie Ott smiles and speaks with Paul Wylie, who invited her to visit with para-athletes at the Mount Van Hoevenberg bobsled run on Wednesday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Allie Ott smiles at Start One of the of the Mount Van Hoevenberg bobsled run on Wednesday, before watching para-athletes take turns whizzing down the track. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)