HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Canadian Victoria Feige had added to her trophy cabinet with a fifth gold medal at the 2023 ISA World Para Surfing Championship (WSPC).
The 38-year-old Feige, now based in Hawaii, won the women's kneel division Saturday with Brazil's Vera Quaresma taking the silver. Spain's Audrey Pascual earned bronze and France's Emmanuelle Blanchet collected a copper medal for fourth (surfing is competed in one-on-one heats)
“Seeing the level rise, it’s so sweet to have a victory, but seeing the movement rise is probably the best part,” Feige said. “It’s also so empowering, because I feel like I’m not alone, there’s other girls in the world with disabilities like mine who’ve got that fire to really push the level.”
Feige grew up in Vancouver and learned to surf at 16 in Tofino. At 18, she overshot a jump while snowboarding and landed badly, sustaining a spinal fracture.
Feige returned to skiing and surfing a year later as a sit-skier and adaptive surfer with partial paralysis, later becoming an adaptive instructor in both sports. She started competing in adaptive surfing in 2016.
Also on the weekend, Ling Pai won a copper medal in the women's visually Impaired category while fellow Canadian Lisa Franks, no stranger to the medal podium from her days as a wheelchair racer, took bronze in the sit category.
Canada finished 10th out of 27 countries competing.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2023
The Canadian Press
