Redcliff's Sarah Mickey is waiting to hear if she will be off to Tokyo to compete for Canada at the Paralympic Games. - SUBMITTED PHOTO
Sarah Mickey could not be any closer to making her Olympic dream come true.
She has trained hard, earned the results and she has been named to Team Canada’s provisional roster for the 2021 Paralympic Games in Tokyo next month.
All the Redcliff-born discus thrower is waiting for is an official announcement from Athletics Canada to make her dream become reality.
“We found out last week and now we’re just waiting for it to be announced as fully official,” she said. “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 says making the provisional roster was quite the thrill.
“It’s so exciting for me,” she said. “This is everything I was working toward and preparing for.
“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.”
Once announced, Mickey will get packed and head to Tokyo for late August, where she will compete with the best in the world.
Things will look a bit different for competitors, though. Stadiums will be empty. Family and friends will not be travelling with Mickey. She will not get much time, if any, to explore Tokyo.
“Due to COVID, a lot of things are very different,” she said.
“Every athlete there will be working with the same tight schedule, so we all have to work with what we have.”
She says she has her eyes on the podium.
“I have trained and prepared for years,” she said. “I’m going to go out there and do what I need to do.
“I’m nervous, but feeling pretty good about things.”
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 says para sports have given her a new lease on 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.
“Being able to still practise and compete allows me to be me.”
Mickey got into seated throwing in 2015 thanks to the support of those around her.
“That was the year para sports were integrated into high school provincials,” she said. “I started in wheelchair racing, because that was the first thing offered, then the following year they offered throwing events.
“I’ve done it ever since.”
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.
“Even if you don’t want to compete, sports get you active and get you social.
“I have met so many amazing people through para sports and they really have changed my life for the better.”
Mickey’s event, F55 discus throw, is one of the first to wrap up with medal events on Aug. 27.
