This U.S. Paralympian Known For His Creative Halloween Costumes Has Outdone Himself This Year

Josh Sundquist is known for many accomplishments, but it’s his ingenious and hilarious approach to Halloween costumes that has garnered most of his online fame and fans. When he was 9 years old, he lost his left leg to cancer, but since then, he’s found success as a U.S. Paralympian, author, motivational speaker, and comedian.

Six years after losing his leg, he picked up ski racing. He moved to Colorado a year later at age 17 to dedicate himself to training and competition, racing for the United States in the IX Paralympic Games held in Turin, Italy. In 2006, he left racing to earn a college degree in business from College of William & Mary, and later earned a master’s degree in communications from the University of Southern California.

Having given his first motivational speech as a teenager, Sundquist has continued to tour and speak, offering discussions of his struggles, peppered generously with a comedic take on both his condition and the world around him.

His sense of humor has also manifested in an annual parade of hilarious Halloween costumes that incorporate his disability in incredibly clever ways. Last year, he appeared as Lumiere the candlestick from “Beauty and the Beast,” standing tall while doing what a candlestick does — holding candles.

In 2015, he took a brand name quite literally, standing in as an “IHOP” sign: his head and likeness completely hidden from view, save for his one leg serving as the signpost.

A few years prior, he took a very conceptual (and counterintuitive) approach to his flamingo costume, showing off his impressive upper-body and core strength in the process.

Way back in 2012, he took on some low-hanging pop-culture fruit by dressing up as the iconic “leg lamp” from “A Christmas Story.”

For 2017’s costume, Sundquist became a live-action Tigger from “Winnie the Pooh,” disguising his leg as the tiger’s springing, load-bearing tail. To really sell the effect, his costume reveal was set in a trampoline park. Thousands of people were waiting to see what Sundquist would be wearing this time around, and they weren’t disappointed.

His fans were quick to marvel at not only Sundquist’s innate sense of costumes and creativity but his positive outlook on life.