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This story was originally published on Newsroom.co.nz and is reissued with permission.
Annabel Anderson, the world's number one stand-up paddler for six years, is rethinking her career after a skiing accident, she can not believe she's survived.
Anderson does not remember more than 400 m after falling off a cliff on Treble Cone. But she knows that it is as good as she does not do it.
Being knocked out at the first shock, in a terrible skiing accident four months ago, "probably saved my life," said the multi-talented athlete, the kiwi. "And I would never want to relive that."
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* The last Winter Games of Bobby Brown, superstar skier
Falling like a rag doll, she suffered a long list of injuries, including a dislocated hip, a broken tailbone, a torn knee ligament, a whiplash and severe bruising.
"When I see where I fell, it's like" how on earth [did I survive that]& # 39 ;? "she says." I obviously have more things to do on this earth. "
But that means that Anderson – the world's number one stand-up paddler since the start of the standings in 2012 – is not competing at this week's SUP and paddle ISA world championships in China.
In fact, she does not know when or even if she will return to the competitive world of stand-up paddling.
The pause to recover – after years of racing around the world – gave Anderson, 37, a little time to think about her career and what she could do next. She also focused on just getting up.
When Cloakroom Addressing Anderson, she had just finished up Iron Mountain behind her home town of Wanaka. Earlier in the week, she was back on a bike. And she was on the calm waters of Wanaka Lake slowly padding.
It's a far removed scene from Anderson's unprecedented year, in 2017, when she garnered an impressive number of SUP titles worldwide.
Among them were the long distance and technical race titles that she had easily won at the world championships; the Pacific Paddle Games champion (who also won her the 2018 Women's Performance Award for the sport); and the world's number one SUP racing title in the world – man or woman. She is the only woman to have this honor.
All of this made her a runner-up for Halberg's Best Woman of the Year award this year.
But since then, Anderson seems to have had only bad luck. As she wrote on Instagram: "This is not my first rodeo on the rehab front".
She was already returning from an injury when the ski accident occurred. She had broken her thumb in a mountain bike stage race in the French Alps (she is a strong rider, having won a series of races in New Zealand and the United States last year). And she was recovering from another concussion – a pull bar that she was using in her parents' garage ripped off the ceiling and she bumped her head against the concrete floor.
At the end of July, she suffered her most serious incident. A talented skier who competed internationally as a teenager, Anderson had gone out with friends to ski on Treble Cone.
"It was a normal day of skiing, a beautiful day, I grew up on this mountain and I know the bottom of the field like the back of my hand," she says.
There was a thick layer of fresh snow during the night and so they went to Motatapu Falls, a difficult terrain in the hinterland.
"When you're a local, you know where to go," she says.
But while Anderson was skiing in the bowl, she made a mistake. "The way the snow was loaded created a visual illusion, and I started at the speed of speed," she says.
"I'm really lucky to have been eliminated from the first impact, because I then did 400 meters more vertically.When I arrived 10 minutes later, I was in the arms of the ski patrol. "
It was helicopter-borne from the mountain to Dunedin Hospital.
"The doctors said that the blow to the head probably saved my life and many more fractures," she says. "Three days after the accident, I was drinking champagne with the guys who saved me, celebrating being alive."
Anderson has had more than his share of calamities as an elite athlete. Various leg injuries have ended his international skiing and triathlon careers; she had had 11 surgeries at the age of 24. She has suffered countless ligament injuries to her knees.
"Normally, I have to let myself go, because I had problems that I had to continue on," she says. "But now I understand that it's good to be broken.It's a forced surrender.
"It's been a long time since I run at a fast pace, and life sometimes makes us slow down."
For almost ten years, Anderson has been living in a suitcase for at least 10 months each year. Before that, she had only taken a decent break in her sports career.
The girl who grew up on a high farm near Lake Wanaka traveled the world from the age of 16 and skied on the alpine circuit in order to become an Olympic skier. In 1999, she broke her leg in training and injured her knee when she returned.
She then started swimming and cycling, which led to triathlons and a place in the sport's high performance program. Once again, she suffered a serious knee injury. A free ski competition attempt was further hampered by an injury.
When Anderson completed her Bachelor of Marketing degree at Otago University in 2004, she "walked away from everything that was competitive – I was so exhausted".
She has focused on the business world for the next seven years, working in Auckland, then in London for multinational companies such as American Express and Rolls Royce.
But at the age of 29, the water beckoned, and she started paddling on the Thames. She convinced the organizers to let her participate in a SUP event in Germany in 2010, with no experience, and finished second in the speed and distance race on a borrowed board.
This started his connection with the SUP racing. Although she has broken her toes, fingers, ribs and more knee ligaments, she has established herself as a tough, relentless and aggressive competitor on the world circuit. In 2012, she was the number one woman in the world. A post she has not given up, so far.
Dealing with his recovery has been a lesson in patience and acceptance for Anderson. But she is "optimistic tirelessly" for her return to the mountains and the waves.
However, there were things that she could not wait for. Ten days after the ski accident, she was lying on the lake, lying on its edge, paddling her hands in icy water. It was his "chicken soup for the soul".
She has visited her physiotherapy clinic and plans to return to yoga. She is planning a trip to California to see a doctor who in recent years has tended to treat her with stem cell therapy.
"I tore ligaments in the right shoulder last January and, with the treatment, they have regenerated .This has avoided a shoulder reconstruction," he said. she said.
"Every day, I get 0.01% better and finally I get it in. I'm still so far from any kind of starting line, it could be six months, two years, but I'm not sure. I learned to agree with that. "
But will she come back to the SUP starting line? "It's funny, really, when I finished my season at this time last year, I knew that I really could not do more than what I had done," he said. she says.
"It's been six years since I was the best in the world, I won all the titles and beat the boys, I have to do something pioneering and leave it in a good place. life by doing what I loved – even though I did the last three years of my career without sponsorship.
"The decisive for me would make it better, I honestly think I have more to give now that I do not win."
This could be in his leadership out of the water. Anderson is already a strong supporter of the #ipaddleforequality movement in her sport, which focuses on issues such as pay equity and more opportunities for paddlers.
Sport – currently in a state of conflict and confusion – needs advice. The International Surf Association and the International Canoe Federation are currently arguing over who has the right to govern in stand-up paddling, while campaigning for inclusion at the Olympics.
The fierce struggle for control has now been dragged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport – the Supreme Court of International Sport – and the attempt to canoe-kayak to organize its first SUP World Championship has been scuttled.
"It's a really sad situation," Anderson said. "The sport has all the potential, but right now it has been played in the biggest football game, it's hideous.
"There is no leadership, no governance – and this has an impact on the base, the industry and the sport."
Anderson says that she will have to "redefine my relationship with the competition" if she wants to continue competing in the SUP, and it's a process she's still going through. But it is unlikely that she will sit and watch lupines flourish for too long in Wanaka.
"I do not think I'm going to withdraw from anything, I'm certainly not going to retire after being amused."
* Another New Zealander made headlines at the ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championships this week. Stella Smith, 16, of Gisborne, won the first SUP medal on surfing in New Zealand, a bronze medal for women.
This story was originally published on Newsroom.co.nz and is reissued with permission.
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