GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A 23-year-old woman from Lowell is now a world champion after winning four gold medals with Team USA.
Kate Brim was invited to join Team USA this summer after placing high a the U.S. Paracycling National Championships and has spent the last two weeks competing across Canada.
She garnered two gold medals in the time trial and road race at World Cup and the final two in the time trial and road race at the World Championship.
Brim had complications from a surgery when she was 19 and developed a spinal cord injury that slowly made her lose strength and function. She spent a year and a half recovering at Mary Free Bed in Grand Rapids.
Her injury provided a new opportunity — it “set a fire in me,” Brim said.
She joined the Grand Rapids Thunder wheelchair rugby team and Mary Free Bed's handcycling team. Her first year competing was in 2021, when she was crowned the winner of the woman's handcycle division of the Amway River Bank Run.
“I’m not going to let this injury define where I go in life," Brim said.
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