Paraclimber Kate Sawford Crushed for Canada at Worlds

The Innsbruck World Championships was one of the biggest events in recent comp climbing history and a number of Canadians competed.

A ? medal for which I fought pretty hard! Thanks to @athletebychoice for the programming over the past few months and to Evolv Sports and Alberta Orthotic and Prosthetic Centre for the ongoing support. Congrats to Lucie, Emily, and Savannah for amazing performances. The video is online for those that want to watch the action – https://youtu.be/BbvAIf0_EgM. I’m on at around 34:00 minutes. @evolv_worldwide @evolvcanada @aopcyyc #shesgotlegs #TeamCAF #evolvsports #teamevolv #evolusa #aopcyyc

A post shared by Kate Sawford (@kate_sawford) on Sep 14, 2018 at 1:28am PDT

The only Canadian to advance to a finals round was Kate Sawford in the AL-2 category (leg amputee) where she won silver after Lucie Jarrige and ahead of Emily Stephenson.

“A silver medal for which I fought pretty hard,” wrote Sawford on social media. This marks her third 2nd place finish in the women’s leg amputee division at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships. She also earned silver medals in Gijon (2014) and Paris (2016).

Sawford was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1993 at age 11, after which she had a year of chemotherapy and a rotationplasty.

Rotationplasty, she explained, is “a salvage procedure that involves removing the knee joint and replacing it with the ankle joint. I am fortunate in that the treatment was curative.”

Sawford is from Hamilton, Ontario and currently lives in Wellington, NZ.

Watch Sawford in finals at 34 minutes in the video below.