Sit skiers hit the open road in a global running race

Paralympics

In a milestone year, Paralympic sit ski hopeful Bailey Unahi made a successful debut on the offshore slopes and is joining a global effort to raise funds for spinal cord research. , Merrin Anderson writes.

Wheelchair racing down the Oakland waterfront in the middle of the night is a far cry from speeding down the mountains of Cardrona.

But on Sunday night, Bailey Unahi will be one of hundreds of thousands of racers around the world participating in the Wings for Life World Run to raise money for spinal cord research.

This is the cause close to Unahi’s heart. She was injured when a balcony collapsed at her Six60 gig in Dunedin in 2016.

She was 19 years old at the time and has been in a wheelchair for the past seven years. She started sit-skiing and works as an occupational therapist in Otago.

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The Wings for Life World Run is a global event where all racers start at the same time and run at their own capacity until the chasing vehicle catches up.

Unahi, who will be racing in a wheelchair, took part for the first time last year with 161,892 participants worldwide.

“I thought it would be great to raise awareness for people with spinal cord injuries. The money goes not just for treatment, but for everything in general. To improve the lives of people living with spinal cord injuries,” she said. says.

“And by having a global event, we now have friends all over the world to attend and support.”

The Auckland event is a loop around Westhaven Marina, a fully accessible track.

“Even though you technically can’t run, it emphasizes the fact that you can participate in those kinds of exercises and events,” says Unahi. “No matter how good your abilities are, you can make them work.

“Just because you’re in a wheelchair doesn’t mean you can’t run. Yeah, it looks a little different, but we can still participate and we can participate. I think that’s an important message.” ”

Unahi runs with friends from Auckland, and friends and family from overseas join in at the same time.

The Auckland event kicks off at 11pm with the virtual catcher car starting 30 minutes later. If a car catches a participant, they stop racing.

“I would love to see more people with spinal cord injuries and other abilities in action, because they are all accessible,” says Unahi.

100% of entry fees and donations go directly to spinal cord research, raising more than €38 million (NZ$ 67 million) over the ten-year event.

Unahi grew up in the small town of Winton, less than a two-hour drive from Queenstown, but never set foot in the mountains.

“It’s obviously a very expensive sport and my family wasn’t really into that sort of thing,” she explains.

Unahi played a variety of sports as a child, including netball, rugby, touch, basketball and swimming, but after an injury she took up sit skiing through ParaFed Otago.

“They arranged several weekends traveling from Dunedin to Wanaka and arranged everything from accommodation to transportation to lessons,” recalls Unahi.

“I thought, why not sign up and try it out? I was hooked. The rest is really history.”

Unahi, a difficult sport to master, was inspired by glimpses of other sit skiers’ independence in the mountains.

From being able to drive a car with hand controls to being fit enough to ride chairlifts and sit-skis, Unahi has achieved complete independence in the mountains and now has her sights set on the 2026 Winter Paralympics. I’m pointing Italy.

For me, who grew up playing all kinds of team sports, adapting to individual disciplines is a big change for Unahi.

“The day you actually go into the game, it’s all up to you. It’s a new feeling. I don’t know how I feel about it yet,” she says.

“I obviously love a team environment, it’s a team environment in another way.

“I still have a team behind me, like coaches, teammates and everyone involved in snowsports.”

Snow Sports NZ has been “incredibly supportive” of Unahi. Especially when he fought abroad for the first time this season.

She finished on the podium a few times, finishing third at the Super-G in Colorado in January and another two-thirds finish at the slalom in Utah in February before returning home in early April.

“It was my first season going abroad to train and compete with Paralympic-level athletes, so it was great to benchmark myself,” Unahi said.

“It also shows that we still have a long way to go to reach the next level.

Unahi competes in technical races such as slalom and giant slalom, and is currently addicted to the speed of her favorite event, the Super G.

“Training is a little bit more difficult because you have to run the full top to bottom for safety. We have to take advantage of it,” explains Unahi.

Unahi’s commitment to her Paralympic goals is clear. She took a long, unpaid leave of absence from her full-time occupational therapy job to train in Canada during the summer in New Zealand.

When Unahi was abroad, his training was intensified as he spent more time in the mountains.

“I was training in the hills every day Monday through Friday and then in the gym three times a week, so it was pretty fulfilling,” she says.

Back home, she balances work and training at Habit Health. When conditions permit, she will be in the mountains 3-4 times a week, plus she will attend 2-3 gym sessions.

But she will make time to travel to Oakland this week as one of three Kiwi ambassadors for the Wings for Life World Run, alongside Brad Smell and Gareth Lynch.

Sumeru was a professional wakeboarder, but a water accident left him with a broken neck and a quadriplegic. He is currently writing a book about his own experiences, sharing his own stories through his social media.

Lynch suffered a spinal cord injury as a result of jumping into the pool. He plays wheelchair rugby with the Wheelblacks and is aiming to qualify for the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

*For more information on the Wings for Life World Run, or Click here to sign up