Canada’s only snowboarding Paralympian was in Estevan last week, capping off her yearlong involvement with Hillcrest School’s second grade class.
Michelle Salt has been snowboarding since she was 12 years old, but in 2011, a motorcycle crash led to the amputation of her right leg just above the knee. The injury didn’t slow her down for very long. By 2014, she was competing at the Paralympic Games in Sochi.
Now, she’s working towards competing as a cyclist at the Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next year.
Salt is a part of the Classroom Champions program, which teams Olympians and Paralympians with students across North America. She has been working with the Hillcrest class virtually since the start of the school year and made the trip from Calgary to speak with the class and the rest of the school on Friday.
Salt said there is a very real difference between Olympians and Paralympians, and it’s not only that Paralympians compete in their events with limitations, it’s that while Olympians are training from a very young age, Paralympians don’t usually get into sport until after their injury or diagnosis.
For her, the injury has meant opportunity.
“This is like a blessing in disguise. It has given me the opportunity to go to the Paralympics and represent Canada,” said Salt.
She walks with a limp and said she doesn’t run or jump, but her bionic leg, which is as much a computer as it is a prosthetic, doesn’t hinder her performance as a snowboarder or cyclist.
Salt rides boardercross, which pits her one-on-one against an opponent out of the start gate. The course involves jumps, and she said she lands 35-foot jumps and completes 360-degree spins in the air. One leg or two, it’s all part of the game.
Salt competed to a ninth place finish at Sochi, and at the World Cup in January she placed third.
The leg she had on display for the Hillcrest students is her most expensive, coming in at about $80,000. She calls it her Ferrari because the high-performance prosthetic is as expensive as a high-performance car. The leg knows her gait pattern and swings appropriately when she steps.
See tomorrow’s Lifestyles for further reading on Michelle Salt’s involvement with the Grade 2 class at Hillcrest School.
