Nothing is Going to Stop Me

Let me start by saying I’m glad our world championships were postponed. Why, might you ask?

I wasn’t able to compete in our national championships which were held in Miramar, FL last month. I competed at a local competition in the early part of June. It wasn’t the best of days for me from a results standpoint, but I knew I had the following weekend to show out in Miramar.

The day after that competition, I began to feel that achiness in my body. You know that achiness that you feel before the storm hits?

I rested that entire Sunday, and then Monday came. I felt a little worse than I did the day before. Thank God our coach sent out a text and said everyone was off for the day. I stayed in the bed hoping a bit of rest would help. I woke up early the following day feeling a lot worse, so I decided to take a COVID test.

It came back positive! Was it a false positive by chance? Did I do the test incorrectly?

I decided to switch my flight to a redeye that would depart later that night from San Diego. I was hoping to rest the entire day and take a second COVID test in the evening. I took a second test around 6:00 PM.  It was positive!

I felt like I was one of the last people standing because I had never gotten COVID, to my knowledge, since the whole thing started back in 2019. I was proud of that. I’ve been around a number of folks who had it, but I remained free of the virus.
Not anymore!

I had to cancel my flight and hotel. It was a major bummer because I was really looking forward to competing at nationals, especially Miramar. They have a great competition venue and I’ve had some of my best performances there.

I literally was in the bed for the next four - five days, allowing my body to rest. I will say, COVID sleep is kinda undefeated. I slept like a baby!

I’m good now and have resumed training. It still annoys me that I couldn’t compete at national championships, but I’m glad that it was COVID that kept me from nationals, and not world championships or the Paralympics. That would’ve been terrible!

The goal is to compete once more, maybe twice, and finish this year out strong. Then I’m going to enjoy my break because I probably won’t get much of one again until the Paris Paralympics are over. Next year, we have world championships in Paris, the Parapan American Games the latter part of the year in Chile, world championships in Japan in early 2024, and the Paralympics in mid-2024. That’s a lot!

And COVID, don’t even think about it! You’re not going to keep me from any of those competitions!

I plan on being at every single one, ready to go, ready to win!

‍