Sarah Mickey, from Redcliff, Alberta, is on pins and needles, awaiting the official Athletics Canada announcement that she’s going to the Tokyo in August.
She has trained hard, earned the results and has been named to Team Canada’s provisional roster for the 2020 Paralympic Games.
“We found out last week and now we’re just waiting for it to be announced as fully official,” she told the Medicine Hat News. “We assumed it was going to be announced early this week, but it sounds like there has been an appeal – and I know nothing about that.
“It’s definitely been a nerve-wracking few days.”
Mickey said making the provisional roster was exhilarating.
“Being able to honour your country is just such an amazing honour, and if I get to, it’s something I will be forever grateful for.”
She would love to bring a medal back to Canada. “I have trained and prepared for years,” she said. “I’m going to go out there and do what I need to do.
Mickey, 23, contracted lyme disease in 2013 and was diagnosed with transverse myelitis a few years ago.
“I was completely healthy and got bronchitis and was pretty sick. Two weeks after that, I went to bed one night fine and woke up with tremors in my legs,” she said. “That eventually led to paralysis from pretty much my waist down.”
Mickey was a competitive figure skater before her paralysis, and said para sports have reignited that spark in her life.
“Figure skating was so important to me – it took up so much of my life,” she said.
“After paralysis I really felt like I had lost myself, because I couldn’t be active in the ways I knew.
“After I started para sports, I really got my life back.”
Mickey became interested in seated discus throwing in 2015, saying, “That was the year para sports were integrated into high school provincials. I started in wheelchair racing, because that was the first thing offered, then the following year they offered throwing events.”
Mickey has a positive message for younger athletes who may have complex needs.
“You don’t have to be upright and walking to compete in sports,” she said.
“Everything can be adapted to what your ability is.”
Mickey’s event, F55 discus throw, is one of the first to wrap up with medal events on Aug. 27.
