people
shredding the
scene for australia
Joany Badenhorst is an Australian
para-athlete with incredible
ability, currently ranked the World
Number One in Snowboard Cross
for LL-2 Women.
The South African-born 22-year-
old moved to Australia in 2009,
following a farm accident in 2005
that resulted in her becoming a
lower limb amputee.
“The accident was incredibly
traumatic,” Joany told Link
Magazine, “it left ten-year-
old me with a lot of questions,
responsibilities, and decisions.
“I came out of it the way I did “The sports of snowboarding
because of the type of family I had and track training are similar on a
supporting me; amazing doesn’t physical fitness level,” she said.
do justice to who my parents are
and how they raised me.
“However, the skills required
specifically for snowboarding
“I have a number of spectacular couldn’t be more different; people in my life, strong women snowboarding encompasses like my mother who forged a way endurance, strength, explosive high heels, squatting and doing
forward for me in my sport, in power and technical racing.” high kicks, all to prove to him that
society, and in everyday life.”
I was not a hazard to myself, or
In an odd twist, it wasn’t until
Joany was trialling a high-heeled as a snowboarder, with early prosthetic leg, for her Year 12 “While I was making a fool of
efforts as a para-athlete being Formal, that the winter sport myself, the Australian Paralympic
funnelled into track and field. became an option. Snowboard coach was watching,
She’d been identified as a track
16
anyone else.
Joany didn’t initially see herself
while one of this other athletes was
and field athlete with Paralympic “I had to convince my prosthetist potential, and narrowly missed that I was capable of managing out on selection for the London the high-heeled prosthetic leg, so “The coach called me a couple of
Paralympic Games. I was running around the clinic in days later and said; ‘you are female
people
being treated.
linkonline.com.au