My name is Hailey Kuhn. I am a Crossfit Adaptive Athlete in the Seated 1 Without-Hip Women's Division, and I am from the Texas Hill Country.
I had an impact-based spinal cord injury from a fall in 2007 at the T-9 level when I was 14 year old. This caused total lower body paralysis and impacted my ability to live on my own and take care of myself in everyday scenarios in a million different ways. I was completely dependent on my family for everything, and wanted to try and be as independent as I could be once I felt ready to start working out again. Since 2007, I have been working on strength training at Spinal cord injury recovery centres, and in regular gyms, to be able to live and function throughout the day more independently.
It was recommended to me to try Adaptive CrossFit after a post-surgical injury that I was having a hard time recovering from a few years ago. I was unsure if Crossfit was for me at the time, but I decided to try it as a way to re-strengthen my core, and fix the weak areas that I had been struggling with on my own. I took the leap, and started personal training five days a week in 2021. After three years of doing individual workouts with a one-on-one coach, I finally felt ready in 2024 to start competing.
Crossfit introduced me to so many new challenges and gave me so many feelings of personal accomplishment. It opened so many doors for me in my adult life, and gave me so much confidence in myself. The more I go and accept the challenges in the workouts, the more I learn about myself, and the more capable and prepared I feel. I love the competition aspect of Crossfit, but I am most interested in the transferrable skills that these types of workouts give you.
Looking forward, I hope to be able to continue to compete, travel, make new friends, challenge myself with learning new skills, get stronger, build confidence in my movements, keep living independently, and hopefully one day help others who are just starting out on this journey and need a resource.
My one piece of advice to anyone who is in a similar scenario with starting adaptive athletics of any kind, would be to not worry about making fast progress. Take the time to build your skills and confidence with your movements, build your strength, work on your weak spots, and success will eventually come your way. Don’t worry about competing with the other people in the room, just make yourself proud in each and every workout:)
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