Australian Rae Anderson's switch of sports pays off as she prepares for Winter Paralympics debut in Beijing

Less than four years before making her Winter Paralympics debut, Rae Anderson stepped away from elite sport altogether.

As a 19-year-old, Anderson finished fifth in javelin and eighth in discus at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, before being identified as a winter sports prospect a year later.

But in 2018 she took a different turn, and it proved to be the making of her.

«The Commonwealth Games doesn't cater for all summer sports and after being talent-identified in 2017 for alpine skiing I believed I didn't have the financial support to be able to pursue this sport to this level,» Anderson said.

«I did have 2018 off and I spent a semester over in Indonesia studying cultural studies and the Indonesian language. That enforced break really just opened my eyes to the possibilities outside of sport.

»We put a lot of focus on athletes to pursue at the highest level and then that becomes their life, especially for athletes like myself who have only known professional or elite sport since the age of 13.

«So going into high school, going into university, I thought that was my life and I was quite scared about life after sport and you see a lot of athletes have a lot of struggles coming out of sport and into the real world.

»But certainly [after] my experiences in Indonesia and in the real world and having hobbies that aren't skiing, that aren't athletics, I'm excited for life after sport and what that can look like."

The 22-year-old launches a barnstorming finish to claim bronze in the men's snowboard cross SB-LL2 at the Beijing Winter Paralympics.

Anderson was happy outside the elite sport bubble, until «an insane chance meeting» drew her back inside.

In 2019, Anderson was on a ski trip with her family, wearing an Australian team