CROSBY Kym

Classification
T13, F13 (IPC, 05 Mar 2021)

Type of Impairment
Vision impairment (Athlete, 06 Nov 2019)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (Athlete, 06 Nov 2019)

Impairment Details
She was born with albinism, and has 20/400 vision in both eyes. (Athlete, 06 Nov 2019; theorion.com, 18 Sep 2013)

General
POSITIVE POSTPONEMENT
She welcomed the postponement of the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo as she believed it would give her body more time to recover from the 2019 World Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "It was definitely a shock at the beginning of 2020 and something I had to get used to but I was only focusing on the positives. My body gets more time to heal because our world championships were at the end of last year [2019], and we would have been doing a quick turnaround for Tokyo. But now we have time for our bodies to rest more and focus on what we need to fix in our races and in our techniques, so I think it has been a great thing." She also began writing a journal during lockdown. "I started listing out the positive things that are coming from COVID. One of them, a big one, was letting my body heal." (Challenged Athletes Foundation Facebook page, 24 Nov 2020; ability360.org, 12 Oct 2020)

COACHING
She works as a coach for visually impaired athletes with the Challenged Athletes Foundation [CAF] High School Adaptive Sports Program in the United States of America. "The number one thing I want to do is be the role model for these young girls. When I was in college I used to go to the local elementary schools and talk to the visually impaired students and they would tell me that they had no idea they could do sports and that broke my heart, so I made it my goal to be the role model for them." (Challenged Athletes Foundation Facebook page, 24 Nov 2020)

KEEPING MAIDEN NAME
She decided to continue competing under her maiden name Crosby after she got married to US Paralympic athlete Erik Hightower. "I am a Hightower but I race as a Crosby. I have made this decision because I have worked so hard to be where I've been and where I'm at now as a Crosby. I have made podiums and have helped spark motivation in some to believe in themselves and follow their dreams. And that's what I intend to continue to do. So call me Crosby, call me Hightower but don't call me Crosby-Hightower because that's too long." (Facebook page, 25 Aug 2019)