Winter Olympian, stroke survivor Sami Kennedy-Sim ready to tackle next obstacle
She’s overcome health dramas that would have sidelined other athletes for life so Winter Olympian Sami Kennedy-Sim isn’t letting her latest battle phase her.
Manly
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Sami Kennedy-Sim survived a stroke to compete at her first Olympic Games less than a year later.
The Australian ski-cross competitor then recovered from heart surgery to compete at a second Winter Olympics two years ago.
And now she is preparing for her third, without one very vital ingredient — snow.
But if anyone can overcome this obstacle it’s the northern beaches-based skier now spending her autumn and potentially winter in the seaside suburb of Manly due to coronavirus restrictions.
While in lockdown the determined athlete quickly worked out a way to race European competitors in virtual events, is doing strength and conditioning work and also virtual racing on her bike.
“I’m just coming up with ways to try and continue to nourish my inner competitor,” Kennedy-Sim said.
“I got home from Europe literally five days before the world blew up. It was really frustrating because I wasn’t ready to come home, I was supposed to do another couple of competitions.
“Thankfully in the end I was bought home early and the competitions were all cancelled and I didn’t even have to self isolate the first two weeks like a lot of my teammates did.
“Normally at this time of year I would be taking a bit of time off but also looking to go overseas in May for a spring camp before I get on snow in the Australian winter.
“One thing I’m certain about is I’m not going overseas at the moment and who knows when the world will stop spinning.”
From an early age Kennedy-Sim was a nomad, with her father a hotelier and working around the country.
A member of the Manly surf life saving club, touch football club and Little Athletics as a sport-mad youngster, skiing became her priority in her teenage years and lead her to the Sochi Games in Russia after a stroke.
Recovering from a minor knee operation, her cat jumped on her as she lay in bed at her Manly home in April, 2013, aged just 24.
“I screamed in pain and that quick reaction dislodged a clot in my leg. It turned out I had a small hole in my heart and so it went to my brain which is how I had the stroke,” she said.
“It was terrifying because I could feel that there was something wrong but I couldn’t speak. I was paralysed on one side of my body.”
The quick action of husband and Olympic cross country skier Ben Sim saw her arrive in hospital less than 10 minutes after the episode with the speed of the trip assisting in her recovery.
On her return from her debut Olympics in 2014 she had a heart surgery to rectify the hole before going on to complete in PyeongChang in 2018.
“It’s been a really rocky journey but I’m also proud to have rehabilitated and made it back to competition and to represent Australia,” said the 31-year-old.
Kennedy-Sim now has her sights set on competing at the next Winter Olympics in Beijing and showing more improvement in her category with a medal finish “the dream”.
“I came dead last in my first Olympics. I fell and placed last, but someone has to come last and unfortunately that day it was me,” she said
“I then went to PyeongChang four years later and came eighth so that’s an improvement of 20 positions.
“I have to continue to push myself to achieve my best on the day and in a sport that has so many variables who knows. You never know, the Steven Bradbury moment might get called the Kennedy-Sim moment.”
The skier is now hosting SnowActive, a 30 minute strength and fitness workout you can do from home developed by Snow Australia.
The fun and interactive ski and snowboard fitness program to people of all ages and abilities and can be found here
https://www.snow.org.au/snowactive/