Jadin O’Brien’s biography says one of her hobbies is watching Disney movies.

She can relate to the subject matter.

Her life story resembles the plot of a Disney film.

From a debilitating childhood mental and physical health crisis, to suffering injuries every season of her collegiate career, to winning three NCAA heptathlon national championships at Notre Dame, to making the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in a sport she took up less than six months ago, O’Brien’s journey has been defined by struggle, determination, achievement and unyielding faith.

Throughout every obstacle she has faced during her life, the Pewaukee native and Divine Savior Holy Angels High School graduate has leaned on her Catholic upbringing.

“Going through (her childhood illness) and coming out on the other side and then going through the things I have in my sports career, faith has been a big part of it because it adds meaning to the suffering,” O’Brien said. “When there’s a higher purpose, when you’re going through something but offering it up to God and asking him to use it for good, it adds power to what you’re doing. I think a lot of good comes from that. My faith has been really big in terms of keeping me focused and giving me a higher ‘Why?’ and keeping me motivated while I’m going through pretty difficult periods.”

On Friday, Feb. 6, she will walk in the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies as part of Team USA, representing her country in the bobsled. A gifted natural athlete — her father, Kevin, played professional football, and her mother, Leslie, ran track in college — O’Brien used her natural athletic ability, her determination and her ability to learn new skills to make the U.S. Olympic team on Jan. 19.

“When I heard my name, my mouth just dropped,” O’Brien said. “I was shocked.”

As the brakewoman for one of Team USA’s three women’s bobsled teams, O’Brien will compete with pilot Elana Meyers Taylor on Feb. 20-21 in Cortina, Italy.

It was Meyers Taylor who had recruited O’Brien to give bobsledding a try, which she first did in August.

“I knew what the sport was, but I had never seen it in the Olympics,” O’Brien said. “The only knowledge I had of it was ‘Cool Runnings.’ I’d always watch figure skating, skiing and snowboarding.”

Ah, yes, another Disney movie.

But the picture of achievement and joy O’Brien presents to the world now was derailed for several years during her childhood.

One of six children, O’Brien’s personality and energy level began to change around the time she was 5 years old.

It wasn’t until she was in fifth grade, however, that she was diagnosed with PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections). It turns out that O’Brien had contracted strep when she was an infant, but it went undiagnosed and spread throughout her body.

O’Brien said the mental and physical challenges presented by PANDAS got worse and worse as the years went on. Her family took her to see doctors, a psychologist and several priests before a holistic doctor found the correct diagnosis.

A course of antibiotics and the intercession of St. Thérèse of Lisieux helped pull O’Brien through that stage of her life.

O’Brien’s family belongs to St. Charles, Hartland, and her mom, Leslie O’Brien, had prayed for St. Thérèse’s intercession after she learned that the saint had some obsessive-compulsive disorder issues that mirrored her daughter’s symptoms.

One day, her grandfather went to Mass and as he walking past a stained-glass window, he heard a voice that said, “Jadin’s going to be OK.”

When Leslie heard the story, she asked which saint was on the window; it was St. Thérèse.

Her parents’ faith had to be enough for a while.

“When I had PANDAS, I developed a really skewed view of God,” O’Brien said. “I saw him as almost like a dictator, unfortunately, because of the thoughts I was having. I developed techniques of talking to myself and like a deep voice, imitating what I thought God would say to me. I created a fake persona of God.”

While it was a coping mechanism, the voices also, at times, told her to harm herself or others.

“How is God supposed to be love if he’s telling me to do these things?” O’Brien said. “I was confused.”

The medication she started taking made the voice go away and allowed her to reconnect with her faith.

“It was a really scary time,” O’Brien said.

After going through that, competing in front of the whole world can’t possibly be that scary.

“It was taking a long time for it to sink in but now that the Olympics are just around the corner, I’m starting to get so excited,” O’Brien said. “I’m starting to realize what it is I am actually doing, where I’m actually going to be.”

Which is on a new stage, ready to shine brightly for her family, her hometown and her Savior.

Pewaukee native Jadin O’Brien will compete in the Winter Olympics this month, just months after beginning the sport of bobsledding. (Photo courtesy of Team USA Bobsled)