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The Inspiring Story Behind Paralympian Hailey Danz's Decision To Amputate Her Leg At 14 Years Old
The Paralympics are happening now, and people around the world are cheering on their favorite competitors as they achieve amazing athletic feats. In the mix is Hailey Danz, who will compete in the paratriathlon on Sunday.
The 33-year-old has had a serious health journey and is ready to get yet another medal after winning silver in the Tokyo and Rio Games. Here’s what Hailey has shared with Women’s Health about her training and drive to compete.
She made the decision to amputate her leg as a teenager.
Hailey played a range of sports as a kid, but was diagnosed with bone cancer when she was 12, which sidelined her for several years. “I was fighting for my life, but I also felt like I was in this identity crisis,” she says. “If I can’t do the things I love, who am I?”
Hailey says that several surgeries and treatment left her left leg “pretty functionless.” So, at age 14 (after meeting several kids with prosthetics), Hailey decided to amputate her leg so she could become active again.
“I wasn't concerned with what my body was going to look like on a metal leg,” she says. “I was like, ‘I just want to be able to do stuff.’ It was about the function.”
She relies on her teammates.
Hailey became a triathlon athlete in college after interning for triathlete Keri Serota at Chicago’s Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association. Since then, she says she's become “really, really fortunate” to have found a group in Team USA.
“We train together every day, and I think that that has been really pivotal for me because that started in 2018,” she says. “But prior to that, we were all just training on our own.”
Hailey says “there’s no way” she would still be a triathlete if she didn’t have her teammates. “There are so many days where it's just like you don't feel like going to practice,” she says. “You wake up and tired and you're exhausted from the day before. Can't imagine getting in the water again. But it's like, oh, I have this whole team of people that's counting on me to be there, and then I show up and they lift me up.”
Hailey says that the support is “constant.” She adds, “Some of us do compete against each other, but we also firmly believe that we elevate each other by just bringing out the best in one another and that we can all succeed together.”
Mental health is important for her.
As an athlete, Hailey has an intense training schedule and consumes a nutritious diet. But she also maintains her mental health through talk therapy.
“It’s huge,” Hailey says. “I am a big proponent of just talking to someone. I have seen a sports psychologist and a therapist for a long time, probably since 2015.”
Hailey says that working on performance-related strategies with the sports psychologist— but also taking care of life outside of sport—has “been really beneficial for me.”
This is especially important during the Paralympics, since Hailey says her mood can fluctuate throughout them.
“The highs are so high and the lows are so low, and it feels like you're just kind of constantly swinging back and forth between the two,” she says. “Looking back on my last two [Games], it's like I experienced a lifetime of emotions in that one week.”
But Hailey says she knows what to expect now, adding, “I got to make sure that I'm going into this ready to handle that, because it is a lot.”
Go Hailey and Team USA!
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