Rachel Māia hopes to bring home New Zealand's first ever climbing medal. Photo / Brydie Thompson
Paraclimber Rachel Māia's attempt to bring home a medal in one of three World Cup events this year will be documented in a film.
The Whanganui woman will head to the first event in Salt Lake City on May 24 before heading to Los Angeles to train for a few weeks.
She will then compete in two more World Cup events in Innsbruck in Austria in June and then in Switzerland in July.
With her will be Katie Myers, a professional outdoor climber and filmmaker from the US.
Myers will be supporting Māia with her training and making a film about their adventure, which they are still looking for a sponsor for.
Māia placed fourth in the last two World Cups she competed in, in 2018 and 2019.
She will compete in a format where the score depends on how many holds a climber can reach and positive movements towards holds they achieve.
Climbers have six minutes to get to the top, and if you fall you cannot get back on the wall.
Māia balances her life as an elite athlete with parenting her three children, Max, Charlotte and Quillan. She hopes to bring home a medal for each of them while away.
"I'm struggling with the idea of leaving them but I want them to know the world is so big, and you can achieve whatever you set your mind to," she said.
This will be the first time Māia competes in an international competition with a prosthetic.
Minor adjustments to the prosthetic limb had been made over the last two years to help with the chronic nerve pain Māia had been experiencing and to lessen blistering.
"There's a continual evolution of perfecting this limb until it has fewer trouble spots than benefits."
Although Māia said she was nervous about using the prosthetic limb for the upcoming competitions, she felt it was now a part of her body, and felt comfortable with the mental shift.
"I've spent the Covid time warp rewiring pathways between my brain and my foot to try to get those foot placements perfect, try to get precision in the movement and learn how to trust weighting it when you can't feel it," she said.
"I have just done repetitive movements over and over again and it feels like a part of my body now rather than something I've put on to wear."
To get to that point, her climbing wall in her shed at home was crucial.
The wall was built just before the first lockdown in an unknowingly timely fashion, with most of the materials supplied by Easttown Timber, Plymasters Whanganui and Mitre 10 Mega, which Māia was very grateful for.
This wall had been critical to continuing her strength and conditioning training during the lockdowns, and relearning how to use a leg.
"So I've been really, really thankful that it happened when it did. It's changed my capacity to train and given me an edge that I wouldn't otherwise have."
To get back into competing before her upcoming journey overseas, Māia competed in the NZ speed nationals earlier this year, as there were no other competitions for para-climbing due to Covid.
Although she was up against able-bodied climbers, she came home with a gold medal and the title of New Zealand Champion for the 2022 Masters Speed Championships.
Māia said there were plenty of people that could have beaten her time, but they weren't there because of Covid-19.
In 2021 she had qualified for the World Cups held in Russia but was unable to get a MIQ spot.
She said High Performance Sport New Zealand couldn't offer any support with MIQ, and although she understood they had to draw a line somewhere, it was still hard seeing other New Zealanders compete and do well in other world championships.
Māia said since she started competing in 2018, she gained confidence as a climber and her ability to read routes.
Now she could understand particular movements better, as well as recover and fuel her body properly- a skill in itself.
If Māia qualifies for the finals, it can be watched on the IFSC Youtube channel where it will be livestreamed.
Māia has a Givealittle page that is open for donations.
"My normal is parenting three children on one and a half legs and trying to lead a double life as an elite athlete. Someone else's normal might be that they would love to support that if they can."
To follow Māia's journey overseas, head to her instagram at @rachelmaianz