Marshall supporters cheer steady progress

By Published On: July 24th, 2009Comments Off on Marshall supporters cheer steady progress

American alpine skier Cody Marshall, hospitalized since a serious head injury sustained July 16 required brain surgery, has been getting more than a little help from his friends.

Family, teammates and friends of the 26-year-old, Vermont native have rallied behind the athlete as he steadily shows signs of improvement at the University Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. His siblings and friends have started an online blog to update his many fans on his recovery, post personal notes and provide a place for distant supporters to post encouragement to their friend.

Marshall’s hospital room is full of well wishers’ notes, posters and balloons. His skier siblings Jesse and Chelsea Marshall have also taken up residence at the hospital, becoming very well versed in all of their brother’s medications, treatments and test results.


American alpine skier Cody Marshall, hospitalized since a serious head injury sustained July 16 required brain surgery, has been getting more than a little help from his friends.

Family, teammates and friends of the 26-year-old, Vermont native have rallied behind the athlete as he steadily shows signs of improvement at the University Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. His siblings and friends have started an online blog to update his many fans on his recovery, post personal notes and provide a place for distant supporters to post encouragement to their friend.

Marshall’s hospital room is full of well wishers’ notes, posters and balloons. His skier siblings Jesse and Chelsea Marshall have also taken up residence at the hospital, becoming very well versed in all of their brother’s medications, treatments and test results.

Even Marshall’s competition has been quick to cheer the young racer along. 
 ”The support Cody has received is absolutely amazing,” said Jesse. “The blog has posts from a Poma lift operator who remembers Cody as a little kid ducking ropes at Killington. It has notes from a groomer at Sugarbush. It even has posts from World Cup athletes like Julien Lizeroux of France and Bulgarian Kilian Albrecht, all sharing stories and wishing Cody the best. It’s incredible how many people are cheering for Cody.”

Younger sister Chelsea reads Cody the blog posts each night, while she holds his hand. “Everyone has been so great in helping Cody and our family work through this incredibly tough time,” said Chelsea. “The overwhelming amount of support makes it impossible to specifically mention everyone, but what I can say is that his walls are filled with posters from his room at home, get well cards, balloons and support posters. All of this wouldn’t be possible without everyone on the team coming together as a family and standing behind us.”

According to a USSA post, even Marshall’s nurses log on to the blog to check up on their patient from home. “Even they are cheering for him from home. They check out the blog before coming to work to see how he did during the previous shift,” said Jesse.

The latest entry, posted Friday morning post reads “I am starting to breathe again as we have moved from the minute to minute fight up to the hour to hour fight and now it seems we are starting the day to day fight. It is a long road we all must take but Cody is a fighter and he is strong. Go Cody Go!”

To follow Marshall’s progress go to www.codymarshallsblog.com. Cards can be sent to:

Cody Marshall
University of Utah Hospital
50 Medical Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84132

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About the Author: Pete Rugh