Help me become New Zealand’s first Paralympic woman Sit-skier

I have always loved to compete in sports. Shortly before my fifth birthday I was in a car accident with my whole family which killed my mother on impact, left my father barely clinging to life, and myself permanently wheelchair-bound. Growing up it was a great frustration and crushing to me to be sidelined while my sisters, whilst carrying their own devastating grief in their heart, remained physically unscathed and able to compete in all sports which I desperately wanted to be a part of.

However, as I grew older, I discovered some sports I could do, including sit-skiing which I took to with ease and immediate love as a 14 year old. I continued to participate in this sport more as I reached adulthood, achieving a gold medal in the Winter Games at Cardrona during my first competitive race as a 25 year old. At this point I had an opportunity to take the sport even further, however, my choice was to prioritise my two very young daughters – I grew up with a gaping hole in my heart from the loss of my mum and I wanted to be present for my children.

I balanced life and motherhood but my insatiable competitive spirit could not be silenced and eventually I joined a Para-sailing crew in Auckland. My sailing campaign took me all the way around the world. I qualified for New Zealand for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games only to be heartbroken, when despite all my hard work and sacrifice to qualify, my team was not sent. It was especially upsetting as sailing will not feature in the Summer Paralympics for the foreseeable future.

For a long time after this I felt like it had all been for nothing, but during the winter of 2017 I hit the slopes again, in the best-fit ski I had had the pleasure of using, and I remembered how much I loved it up there, and moreover, that I am good at it. After watching the Winter Paralympics last year, I got the fire back in my belly and realised that I could do this, that I could take my skill, my passion, and all of the lessons I learnt from my sailing campaign, and go and compete in Para Alpine Skiing at the next Winter Paralympic Games.

Furthermore, when I looked into it I found that no woman from our country has ever competed in that sport, and that I would be leading the way for a whole new generation of young women. That I could show other people like me, who are longing to compete in something truly exhilarating, that this is an option in our country and around the world.

Over the last year I have been training at Winter Park, Colorado with the National Sports Center for the Disabled and moved to Wanaka from Auckland where I have been on the Cardrona Alpine Ski Team training full time with the High Performance Center. I have just wrapped up competing at the Wintergames in World Para-Alpine Skiing Slalom and Giant Slalom events where I received bronze in both events. I have a few more weeks remaining training before Cardrona closes for the season and will then return to Winter Park to train and compete again at multiple events.