Paralympic silver medallist AJ Jennings didn’t despair when was told she could no longer canoe.
Instead, her fierce, competitive drive led her to pick another sport: archery.
Less than two years later, the Logan Village athlete is heading to Paris to represent Australia in the sport.
Her mission: win an Olympic gold medal.
“It was an unexpected find for archery, because I did two games with para-canoe,” Ms Jennings said.
“Coming into archery and being able to take to it so quickly, I think it was a shock to everybody.
“Now that I’m in it, I want to be number one in the world.”
Ms Jennings discovered para-canoe in 2012 after losing her right leg to a form of chronic pain.
After suffering from complex regional pain syndrome for 20 years, as well as depression and an addiction to prescription medication, she hoped to turn her life around and decided to amputate her leg through the knee.
This set her on a new path.
By 2014 she had made her international debut in the sport, securing a bronze medal in Russia, and she won her first title the following year.
She earned her spot the 2016 Rio Paralympics and left the games with a silver medal.
But before the Tokyo games, five years later, Ms Jennings suffered an injury to her hips.
This didn’t stop her competing, but she placed 8th in the semi-final.
Following Tokyo, she underwent multiple surgeries and two full hip-replacements.
“We pretty much worked out I wouldn’t be able to get back into a boat,” Ms Jennings said.
“The hips said enough is enough.”
She said she didn’t lose her “competitive” brain and looked for another sport to pursue.
“I still wanted to compete – I still mentally needed to compete in some way,” she said
She trialled archery soon afterwards and fell in love with the sport.
“I got to go to my first international competition six months after I started shooting and it’s just gone on from there,” she said.
“It’s been a whirlwind, but it has been a good one.”
Ms Jennings is headed to the Paris Olympics in less than a month.
“I’m excited and a little bit nervous because it’s a new sport,” she said.
“Mentally, there’s a little more involved in archery.
“I’m going to go with the flow and take it all in, but it would be nice to be stood up on the podium at the end of it.”
