New Zealand paraclimber Rachel Mฤia sets sights on 2028 Paralympics
Rachel Mฤia.
Photo: Rachel Maia/Supplied
New Zealand climber Rachel Mฤia is no stranger to facing tall obstacles as she embarks on her latest challenge – to get to the 2028 Paralympics.
Mฤia battles chronic pain every day and has a fear of heights, but was determined to book her spot in the debut paraclimbing event in Los Angeles.
She launched a Givealittle page to raise funds to attend two World Cup events in Japan and Korea later this year to help qualify her for the Paralympics.
Mฤia injured her leg when she 16-years-old in a competition in Christchurch.
She told Nine to Noon that after 18 years of surgeries, she made the decision to amputate her leg.
“While I was in Austria, a friend of mine was sort of helping me walk up this mountain and I was leaning on him quite heavily and he’s an amputee and here I am with my two legs, like really needing his help,” Mฤia said.
“It helped me sort of come to terms with this thought that perhaps by giving something up, I might gain a lot more, and the main thing for me was I want time with my children where I’m active.”
Mฤia is a single mother of three kids, including of one with a rare gene which requires a full-time caregiver.
She said her decision to amputate was about wanting more time with her family.
“Being able to just do a simple thing of the joy of putting food on the table for them without falling in the oven and getting burned, or without crawling on my hands and knees at night in a non-wheelchair-friendly home to a daughter who needed me,” Mฤia said.
“So, it wasn’t a difficult decision, but I have ended up with some chronic pain from it, and it is now a very difficult life I will say.”
Rachel Maia post surgery
Photo: Erana Pound @thecultureofgrace & @rachelmaianz
Mฤia said the nerves in her severed leg felt like an electric fence, and she often shut down in the day due to the pain.
But she said when she was climbing, it was different.
“It becomes quieter, and maybe that’s because I’m scared of heights and there’s adrenaline running through my body, but it’s just a way of existing with joy,” Mฤia said.
Mฤia said she hoped to shut off the noise again in Japan and South Korea later this year but was facing hurdles getting there.
She said climbing as a parasport in New Zealand was not funded.
Mฤia said she had been competing internationally since 2017 and every dollar came through community, friends and family.
“In order to have a coach there, I also need to raise funds for their costs because climbing New Zealand don’t have capacity to employ a coach,” she said.
“We also don’t have capacity to write a development plan for our sport; I am the only paraclimber in New Zealand competing in a World Cup level at this point. We have some people moving into that space as well.
“We’re really excited about that growth, but each of us are very much self-funded and self-driven. So, for these two World Cups, I think $6000 would get me there on the bones of my back. But in order to get a coach to come with me, I need more than that.”
Mฤia said the Paralympics was a huge opportunity make history for New Zealand as the sport debuted.
“I hope to show people what we can do if we get up and do one more day, and then one more day, and then one more day, no matter how much adversity or pain or mental health challenges we’re dealing with. Just doing it one day at a time,” she said.
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