Milano Cortina Paralympics: Chapter 2

Buongiorno folks!

Hope everyone is doing good. I’m writing from sunny California, fully decompressed from the magical Paralympic moments. 

It has been almost 3 months from the fateful crash on the course, training for the snowboard cross event. After X-rays and MRI from both shoulders, a collection of injuries were revealed. The pain kept getting worse, to the point it wakes me up every night.

I’ve been doing physical therapy, icing a couple times a day, cold plunge & sauna among other recovery methods. Basically everything in my power, and in a few weeks we’ll know if I need surgery, after more imaging exames.

There’s been a lot of frustration. I can’t do much and it’s hard for me to stay still. I’ve been mad at the guy that designed the course, after all, 13 people fell on the same obstacle before they changed it. Some athletes then got frustrated because that obstacle became “too easy,” but I think it’s better than more people getting injured. I’ll never know if it became “too easy,” as I never got to race that event. Frustrated, bc I trained so much for those moments and I studied that course for so many months! But no point in getting mad with anyone or getting frustrated, it was all meant to happen that way.

In the end of it all, I am super proud of what I achieved, of my resilience. Thankfully I  recovered enough that the doctors cleared me to compete on my second event. It barely happened, and I was still in a lot of pain, but at least I did it! I specifically asked to not see any videos from my accident, so I could keep my mind sharp. 

If I didn’t get to race in any event at the Paralympics, THEN I’d be really frustrated. Thankfully it didn’t happen. Now it’s all about patience. Recovery is a slow process, the improvement in my shoulders happens in small increments. So that’s where I’m at, rebuilding, “licking my wounds”, sitting tight so I can eventually reignite the fire within me. Deep breath…

You’ll be hearing from me, hopefully good things!