Snowboarding Paralympian
After becoming disabled, the more people told her what she couldn’t do, the more she wanted to prove them wrong!
BM was born in the Netherlands. Her father was a contractor; her mother was a housewife.
CAREER CHANGE
Following high school graduation, BM studied law for a year but shifted her career to professional snowboarding while studying for and receiving her degree in sports management and later a Master’s degree in sports management.
CAREER SUCCESS BEFORE PHYSICAL DISABILITY
BM devoted herself to snowboarding and became very proficient in her sport, achieving more than 100 gold medals while competing in meets all over the world. She was a six-time Dutch champion in the halfpipe and snowboard cross events when she injured her right ankle while training for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Doctors found a cancerous tumor. To stop the cancer from spreading, surgeons removed her lower right leg.
MEETING MULTIPLE CAREER CHALLENGES
BM was told by physicians and friends that she would never snowboard again, but she was soon back on the slopes and seven months after her surgery, she won a gold medal at the Dutch snowboarding championships. She continued to compete and win medals even as her cancer reappeared several years later, this time in her lungs. Over the next 11 years, doctors performed five operations, each time removing a bit of lung.
JOINING A GROUP TO PUSH FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO CAREER OPTIONS
She joined several other para-snowboarders in successfully lobbying the International Paralympic Committee to add their sport to the Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. She carried the flag for the Netherlands at the opening ceremony and captured a gold medal in the snowboard cross.
PERSISTENCE TO PROCEED
When her cancer returned, she was told there was no cure, but her husband found a doctor who provided an advanced treatment to slow the progression of her disease. Two years later, she needed more surgery, which left her without any feeling in her lower body, so she began using a wheelchair and a few months later competed in the Dutch version of “Dancing with the Stars.”
COMPETITOR’S INSTINCT INFLUENCES HER ENTIRE LIFE
“As an athlete, it’s a funny thing – people look up to you, put you on a pedestal, think you’re capable of doing anything. A week later, suddenly you’re disabled and now people were telling me what I could not do. This made me really rebellious. Let’s be honest, the more people were telling me what I could not do, the more I wanted to prove them wrong.”
Editor’s note: Sometimes the best doctors and extreme personal persistence cannot avoid the inevitable but until then, utilizing the skills of experts and your own determination can create a new kind of career success and personal satisfaction.
