How Winter Olympian Steph Prem bounced back from a horrific snowboarding accident

STEPH Prem had just finished competing in the Vancouver Winter Olympics when a snowboarding crash turned her life upside down and ended her career.

How Steph bounced back from crash

THE year was 2010, and Steph Prem had just finished competing in the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

It was the realisation of a lifelong dream for the snowboarder, who followed the competition up with the World Cup in Italy.

But it was in Italy where things took a turn for the worst. Mid-competition Steph landed a jump badly, and was left with injuries that would change the course of her life.

“It was in the last race of the season,” the now 29-year-old explains to news.com.au. “I was very burnt out, it was the end of the Olympic season, and I knew I was in trouble as soon as it happened.

“I broke my back, I fractured vertebrae, did serious damage to my pelvis, my hips, I broke five ribs … I still spend a lot of my time in rehab five years on. I was fortunate enough for it to happen after the Olympics, because it was career ending,” she says.

Steph at the start gate prior to her first qualification run in the women's snowboardcross event in 2010.

“To have snowboarding taken away was really hard. It was half a physical and half a mental challenge. When you’ve got in your head that you’ll get to the next Olympics and that changes, it’s tough.

“I was far too impatient with my rehab, I pushed myself way too much and I used to sneak out and try and get some exercise of my own in. I just didn’t understand the process, and I unintentionally pushed my recovery back and back.”

Steph in rehab.

Steph’s injuries.

But fast forward to 2015 and by her own admission, Steph’s life has “completely changed”. She’s living in Melbourne, she’s married, and she’s “had to come to terms with not being able to do high impact activities.

“I’ll never be able to run comfortably again, I’ll never be able to do the extreme sports I used to take for granted. I’m thrilled to say I’m back snowboarding, but I’m not competing, and I never will. But I’m a semi-healthy specimen again, and I’ve been introduced to functional exercise and Pilates. I’ve put all my energy and passion into that and into getting healthy again.

“I went on to do a Personal Training course and become a Pilates instructor, and now I’ve set up [fitness studio] Premium Performance. I love finding exercise that is healing, and that’s accessible for everyone.

Steph, mid-session.

“As a snowboarder I used to lift heavy weighs to keep me strong, my legs especially, but I’ve realised that I don’t need to be thrashing myself every day to be fit, I don’t need to be waking up in pain every day.

“A huge missing element for women is the maintenance side of life, we don’t do enough. We are so obsessed with killing ourselves in the gym or over exercising, we don’t do anything to balance it out, we don’t look at the other things we should be — the rehab, the stretching to avoid injury, that kind of thing. We’re always looking for a quick fix in health and fitness, and it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s not about a 30 day cleanse or a 12 week challenge, it’s about having a healthy life all around.

“I learnt that the hard way. I never believed I would be able to be fit doing what I do now, but I’m actually fitter now than ever before. I used to go way too hard, but I was a professional athlete and I didn’t know any different. The things I put my body through were insane. My outlook on health and fitness now is very different. Physically and mentally I’m in a lot better place than I ever have been.”

Steph says that ‘physically and mentally I’m in a lot better place than I ever have been.’

It’s Steph’s passion for helping women reach their potential and her own experience overcoming adversity that has made her the perfect choice as an spokesman for the 2015 CARE Australia Walk In Her Shoes challenge.

The Walk In Her Shoes challenge takes place across Australia from March 16 to 22, and sees participants walking 25, 50 or 100 kilometres across the week to replicate the distances women and girls in some of the world’s poorest countries have to walk each week to gather things like water and firewood. Money raised through Walk In Her Shoes will go towards CARE Australia’s long-term aid programs in the world’s poorest countries, which provided food, clean water, basic healthcare and education.

“I was attracted to CARE because it’s focused on females, and this walk is perfect with my background being in women’s health,” Prem says.

Money raised through Walk In Her Shoes goes towards CARE Australia’s long-term aid programs.

“My fitness philosophy is about making a long lasting difference, and here we’re helping women and girls make a long lasting difference in a significant way. It’s all about empowering women and girls.

“Being Australians we are very privileged and take for granted things like health, education, work and having an income. We don’t know what it’s like to have those things taken away from us, so not only is this is encouraging us to get out and walk, but it is rewarding to be giving back to a fantastic cause.”

This year there is also a freestyle component to the Walk In Her Shoes challenge, where you can decide the amount you walk. Prem says this is a perfect addition, “so you don’t have to be intimidated by 100k challenge.

“It means that anything you do is going to help the bigger picture.”

More:walkinhershoes.org.au

More:www.premium-performance.com