A Postponement, Some Magic, and a COVID Case: A Year Retrospective
I’m Back! Sorry I’ve Been MIA!
So, It’s a year on from Tokyo and what have I been doing with myself? Well, first I want to apologise for being MIA. This year has been a busy, but somewhat difficult one as you’ll find out shortly, but I promise to be blogging and communicating as we go into a new athletics season this year!
An Unfortunately Short Athletics Season: I Wish COVID Would Go Away!
As you might have gathered from my last blog recapping Tokyo 2020, I arrived back home with a fire in my belly (and soon to be a lot of hot chippies, too). After a “nice” few weeks in quarantine (remember international quarantine?), I got back into the swing of training with new goals on the horizon.
Unfortunately, although somewhat expected, the 2022 Para Athletics World Championships in Kobe were postponed and suddenly some of those smaller goals had to be shifted yet again. It felt eerily similar to when Tokyo got postponed…I hope this isn’t a trend.
Anyway, we refocused on the summer season here in Australia; which turned out to be a rather wet, windy and unpredictable one. Weirdly enough, I had an almost identical race to my 100m final in Tokyo while in Canberra. I pushed some okay times, though without the ideal conditions (crazy weather) or competition from the same classification (closed international borders) it's always hard to tell how fast you really are. On a high note though, I managed to collect a bronze medal at Nationals this year at the beginning of April.
Up next, the wheelchair track team was heading over to Switzerland for the first time since 2019, to race in the Nottwil Para Athletics Grand Prix and the Deniela Jutzeler Memorial Race, both on one of the best wheelchair tracks in the world. Honestly, the results were pretty good. I managed to push a season's best in the 100m, and the competition was suuuuuper close. I came in 2nd and 3rd respectively in the two events. It definitely my quickest, I’d been hitting much better speeds in training, but it felt good to race to the line again with some fast competitors. It was so great seeing international competition getting back to sort of “normal”.
Unfortunately, with the conclusion of the Swiss series a very abbreviated competition season was over. It felt very strange to not have a big event to train for and it was somewhat sad to know I wouldn’t be alongside our international friends and competitors for quite some time. Lots to work on before summer rolls around again. Let’s hope the trend of postponed events is over and 2023 Worlds in Paris is a go!
Beyond the Track: I Promise I Do Other Things, Too
To start, I’ve been to a couple of weddings, which are always fun. One for my good friend Jay and another for my brother! Everyone loves love! Plus, I finally got the chance to pop back over to the US for the first time since the end of 2019.
Disney Magic is for Everyone!
I ticked off trip number three to Disneyland. Absolutely the highlight was being stuck on the Grizzly River Run ride just above a giant waterfall drop while the ride was being fixed. The panic and anticipation of not knowing when we would finally drop down into the water had us in a frantic, wet and giggling state. We tried out the new Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride, and golly gosh what an experience! The Imagineers absolutely knocked it out of the park! It consisted of three different experiences that all worked together into one big adventure… so worth the long wait that we went back again the next night and kept finding things we’d missed.
Over in California Adventure, Marvel's Avengers campus was the “can’t miss” item, offering some new rides and fun live shows throughout the day. The new Spiderman WEB ride was pretty impressive! It made for quite the arm workout as you attempted to sling 3D webs at moving targets via augmented reality as you moved around the track.
Of course, the trip would not be complete with multiple rides on Big Thunder Mountain, even a midnight run as the park was shutting on our last day! Still my favourite ride at the park! Moral of the recap is that I love that place! You may not think the “Disney magic” is for you, but I originally thought that… and I was definitely wrong!
I REALLY wish COVID would Go Away!
For the lowlight of my year, I had absolutely NO pleasure in joining the COVID club, (BOO!) which absolutely wreaked havoc on me for a month. The panic of being in America and on the edge of needing to go to hospital was a scary thought. I’m so thankful I had had four vaccine shots because it could have been much worse! Stay safe to all my disabled community members still trying to take smart precautions and avoid that chaos! I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am at home with our public healthcare system. I’m still recovering now, close to two months later, but symptoms have mostly cleared apart from the occasional cough. I took several weeks off training to help my body recover which led to losing a heap of muscle mass I had been working to put on, plus lost the little fitness I had (#sprinterproblems). I’m now back training again towards the Australian summer season in January.
Renting a Car Nightmare…More Details to Come Soon
To round out my America visit, we had an impromptu eventful road trip to visit a sick family member. The process of getting a hire car with hand controls proved… let's just say difficult at best. I’ll write a whole other post about the disaster that unfolded because there is no way that horrific mess would fit here. But, having the hand controls fail on a highway in a mountain pass isn't ideal… plus being stranded waiting for a tow truck for seven hours… also not ideal. Stay tuned for the full story of that disaster!
Come Get Involved with Local Para Sports!
Thankfully, Parallel Sports has been recovering really well from the pandemic shutdowns. We have had our busiest start to the year with restarting our Wheelchair Basketball Education Program, and we are on track to run sessions to over a thousand kids across the Geelong greater area. Go Team!
On Tuesday night, our Social Basketball Program is back up and running smoothly. Games start at 7pm and continue throughout the evening if you want to come join in! We continue to run our Junior Development Clinics once a month with hopes to bring them back to once a fortnight like pre-pandemic. If you know someone who might like to come play or wants to have a crack at para sport, please reach out! We have an amazing library of equipment and can help you start your own para sports journey.
Last but definitely not least, just recently I got to participate in the Paralympics Australia Education Outreach Program to visit a few Year 3 classes at Saint James the Apostle Primary School in Hoppers Crossing, VIC and talk about my disability and Paralympics journey. I love being able to normalise disability and para sport in these opportunities. Plus, I’m always amused when I get the standard kids’ questions like “Do you have a night chair?”.
So, adventures have been had, races have been raced, disability education has been taught and Big Thunder Mountain has been ridden. It’s honestly hard to believe a whole year has passed since Tokyo. With the World Championships being postponed again this year, the time has just flown by without a major milestone to focus on. With the next two years shaping up to be busier than ever, I'm sure I'll look back on this past year and enjoy the fact I got to focus on the little things. Get ready for more adventures and disasters in my blog posts soon!