Lowell — Seven years after a routine back surgery left her a quadriplegic, Katerina “Katie” Brim is one of the top hand cyclists in the world.
Brim won gold at the Paralympic Games in Paris this summer in the women’s H1-3 individual time trial and a bronze in mixed team relay.
“I still feel so speechless when it comes to it all. It was truly an honor to even be able to make it to the games,” Brim said from Colorado Springs, where she lives and trains at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center.
“I was awestruck over the whole situation and I still am today. To be able to say I got first in that race is truly, truly incredible.”
Brim followed up that accomplishment by winning golds in Women’s H-2 time trial and the Women’s H-2 road race at the 2024 World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland, in September.
She’s now enjoying an off-season break, and thinking about what her next goals will be. In November, she plans to attend a training camp in Spain for handcycling and play in a rugby tournament in Alabama.
‘I’m going to give it 100% and if it works out it works out, and if it doesn’t, then we at least tried.’
— Lowell graduate and Paralympian Katie Brim
‘Try Anything and Everything’
Brim spoke with School News Network about how far she has come since having surgery for a herniated disc in December 2017, at age 19. It was a year after she graduated from Lowell High School and she was pursuing a construction management degree from Ferris State University.
During surgery, a blood clot traveled up her spinal canal and damaged the fourth and fifth vertebrae near the top of her spine, causing paralysis, she said.
“The first bit of being in the hospital was pretty dark, for sure,” she said. “I really didn’t know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go in life, given that the path I was on for construction management was kind of just swept out from underneath me.”
Therapists and coaches at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital helped the lifelong athlete and former Lowell High School crew team member tap into her can-do personality and refocus.
“Their whole mission is getting people back to doing what they love, whether it be through sport, something they did in the community, you name it,” she said.
They introduced Brim to wheelchair and adaptive sports, and it wasn’t long before she was all in.
“They got me into this mindset of, ‘Try anything and everything you can.’ That is what I did for the first couple years of my injury. I was trying everything under the sun.”
There were no halfhearted tries, either. Her attitude was, “I’m going to give it 100% and if it works out it works out, and if it doesn’t, then we at least tried,” Brim said.
She tried waterskiing, kayaking, basketball and sled hockey, and eventually got hooked on wheelchair rugby and handcycling.
Brim hand cycled recreationally for three or four years, beginning on the “green machine” she got from her rugby coach.
“When I first started handcycling, it was quite literally like, ‘Oh my … I made it to the mailbox. Amazing.’”
Day after day she grew stronger. She got involved with Mary Free Bed group rides and really started to push her limits. She became interested in competing and hired her coach, Tom Davis, in 2022.
An International Handcyclist
Brim made her international debut at the 2022 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships and won gold medals in the road race H2 and time trial H2 events. She also won gold in the road race H2 and time trial H2 events at the 2023 Parapan American Games.
Racing with the best adaptive sports athletes in the world is inspiring, she said.
“Every single one of those athletes are there to give it 100 percent. To be amongst people all in that same mindset is truly incredible,” Brim said. “It continues to spread that message of what’s possible amongst those of us in the disability community, but just in everyday life as well.”
The resources at the Colorado training center over the past two years have helped Brim become as strong as she is. She trains on her bike six days a week for a total of 10-15 hours, does three days of strength and conditioning per week and attends physical therapy.
Brim, who attended Lowell Area Schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, was no stranger to overcoming challenges before her injury. She was adopted from Ukraine at age 4 by Melanie and Jacob Brim and came to the United States not knowing any English.
“My parents, especially my mother, were adamant about keeping me in the same grades with my peers and really pressed to show me that I was capable of making it despite the barriers of not knowing English and having some learning barriers in the beginning,” she said. “My mom has definitely been a huge role model for me.”
When Brim looks back at the past few years, she sees that her willingness to keep trying led to where she is today. She said she never envisioned she would have a career as an athlete, but that became a reality thanks to her openness to opportunity.
Her message to students who are disabled and those who are not is the same:
“Don’t be afraid to try new things. If opportunities come your way, as long as it’s safe, just go for it.
“Sometimes getting uncomfortable can bring us the greatest things in life.”
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