1. Joany Badenhorst was born on 10 August 1994 and is a South African-born Australian Paralympian who was selected to compete in Para-snowboard cross at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi.
15 Facts About Joany Badenhorst
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Joany Badenhorst would have been the first female snowboarder to represent Australia at the Winter Paralympics, but was forced to withdraw from her event after injuring her left knee on the morning of the event.
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Joany Badenhorst was born on 10 August 1994 in Harrismith, South Africa.
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Joany Badenhorst's mother Petro is a teacher and her father Peter is an architect.
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Joany Badenhorst's left leg was severed 6 inches below the knee.
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Joany Badenhorst's family moved to Australia in 2009 so she could receive better medical assistance.
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Joany Badenhorst had further surgery to rectify problems with her leg in early 2011.
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Joany Badenhorst competed for South Africa at the Paralympic Youth Games in 2009, and narrowly missed qualifying for the Australian athletics team for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
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Joany Badenhorst said: "I need a special leg that has to be engineered differently to accommodate the different pressures and angles of snowboarding".
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Joany Badenhorst would have been the first female snowboarder to represent Australia at the Winter Paralympics at Sochi, but was forced to withdraw from her event after injuring her left knee whilst training on the morning of the event.
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Joany Badenhorst competed with one arm in a cast due to a fracture caused in a training accident a week before the Championships.
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Joany Badenhorst was selected on the Australian team for 2018 Winter Paralympics but was injured in a training run just prior to the day of competition and was declared medically unfit to compete.
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Joany Badenhorst was the Australian flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony.
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Joany Badenhorst says that her career highlight is being Australia's first, and to date only, female representative in Para-snowboard.
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Joany Badenhorst announced her retirement in September 2019 and stated she would focus her time on studying, as she is completing a Bachelor of Journalism.