Battled back after injury
from the Mirror newspaper in the UK
Lily Rice, who has HSP, is now the women’s world champion of wheelchair motocross (WCMX).
But after a bad fall at the end of 2018, Lily’s confidence was badly bruised.
She wanted to launch herself off the vertical drop ramp like she had done time and time again, but ever since the crash, her body sometimes won’t let her.
“When I’m on the edge, sometimes my body doesn’t push itself over, it won’t happen,” Lily says. “Dropping into steep ramps is a critical part of wheelchair motocross. I know I can do it, my brain is saying I can but my body is saying I can’t.”
WCMX is similar to BMX and skateboarding, with athletes scoring points by doing stunts and tricks.
Lily took to WCMX like a natural; within seven months the 16-year-old became the first woman in Europe to land a backflip in her chair and the second worldwide. Lily recently featured in a BBC documentary.
Now she has her confidence back, the daredevil hopes to carry on competing around the world and one day hopes WCMX will be included in the Paralympic Games.
And Lily also hopes she can inspire other wheelchair users to give the sport a try, and, like in any sport, learn to pick themselves up again after a fall.
“Things like that will stay with you forever, but you have to push past it and get back to where you used to be,” she says.
“Even though there’s still a few things that scare me, I know I will work my way back up.”
Read the entire article here …
SOURCE: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/meet-british-athlete-whos-become-22202931
Meet the British athlete who’s become women’s world champion of wheelchair motocross
By Rhian Lubin, 16 Jun 2020