Whatever doesn't kill Kimberly Joines makes her stronger.

A snowboarder as a teen, Joines loved the freedom she had on the hill. "You could really push your boundaries and scare yourself," she says. But when she was 19, doing a jump on her snowboard, something went wrong. "I fell on my shoulders and neck—just straight upside down." Kimberly lost the use of her legs, but she refused to let herself be held back.

She was still in the hospital when she ordered her first sit ski. Shortly after, she was picking up right where she left off, in the terrain park being a "super daredevil."

She went to Torino and won bronze in 2006, but a broken hip, caused by falling down the stairs in her wheelchair, kept her from the Vancouver Games.

Last March, while training in Sochi, Kimberly had another scare: After doing a jump in some bad conditions, she slid out of control and began doing sideways cartwheels down the hill in her sit ski. Left without the use of her arms for months, she debated packing it all in. "But I thought about it and I was like, ‘I really love this.'"

In the end, she decided to focus on technical events instead of speed to minimize her risks. "It's really going to push my skiing to a new level," she says. "I'm super pumped about what the season's going to bring."

Meet more of our Team Canada athletes. 
                                               

This story was originally titled "The Thrill Seeker" in the February 2014 issue.             Subscribe to Canadian Living today and never miss an issue!