One life-changing remark freed Aussie from shame

PARIS: Para-athlete Nikki Ayers had been grappling with shame for about a year, traumatised by the state of her right leg after a horrific accident on a footy field, when one remark transformed her life.
By the 33-year-old’s own admission, it was obvious to the naked eye that her leg was missing big chunks of muscle, and that her leg was covered with scars.
She had tried to work up the courage to wear anything other than long pants in public, but time after time, her shame had proven too great.
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“There was this one moment where having traumatic injuries did bring us together,” Ayers said, glancing warmly at para-rowing teammate Jed Altschwager in an interview with Wide World of Sports.
“Jed was talking about his therapy and how he came to terms with his leg being his leg.
Jed Altschwager and Nikki Ayers are an unstoppable para-rowing pair. Benedict Tufnell/World Rowing
“He made this comment saying, ‘I can’t change my leg but I can change my mindset’, and that was when I was still really struggling with my leg.
“It’s obvious that I have parts of muscle missing and lots of scars and you can tell that I walk different, and that was the moment for me that helped me flick that switch.”
Ayers and Altschwager will pull on their Australian kit and race for Paralympic gold when a rowing event called the PR3 mixed double sculls is contested at the Games for the first time next week.
They only paired up in the boat last year, after it was announced the PR3 mixed double sculls would feature in Paris, but have a mighty friendship stretching back to 2017.
It was on an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) rowing camp in 2017 that they met, and it was on that camp that Altschwager’s one remark changed Ayers’ life.
“I realised, ‘Well, I can’t change my leg, this is going to be my leg, I have to embrace it’,” said Ayers, whose Instagram handle is nearlyleglessnikki.
Nikki Ayers underwent 16 surgeries on her right leg after suffering horrific injuries during a rugby union game. Instagram
“Then I was able to stop wearing long pants and covering up my leg, and I started to embrace it as my leg. So that was one really pivotal moment in my recovery where Jed’s experience with his traumatic injury definitely helped me with my recovery.
“It’s just crazy how a simple conversation like that or one sentence can completely change someone’s life, and it did for me.”
In 2015, when Altschwager was 28, what had begun as a normal day on the tools in civil construction turned drastic.
His left foot was crushed by an excavator.
Hours later, doctors told the Adelaide local his best option was to have his leg amputated below the knee, and proceeded to do just that.
Ayers, who hails from Dalmeny on the south coast of NSW, suffered life-altering injuries during a rugby union game in 2016.
Vying to crack into the Wallaroos, the Australian women’s rugby team, a tackle went horribly wrong when the then-25-year-old suffered a traumatic knee dislocation.
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She severed an artery and a nerve in her right leg, developed compartment syndrome and tore three ligaments.
Sixteen surgeries followed.
As a nurse, Ayers had always been hustling around in a hospital helping others, but medical help was suddenly coming her way.
Toiling away desperately as the threat of amputation loomed, doctors saved her leg and repaired the damage as much as possible.
The injuries ended her rugby career, and doctors couldn’t save her from permanent foot drop, but she feels a sense of fortune.
“I think having those moments in life where you reflect and you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m so lucky to still have a leg, or still have what I have’, have made us both so determined to not waste this opportunity and strive for gold,” she said.
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An excavator crushed Jed Altschwager’s left foot and the best course of action was to have his leg amputated below the knee. Instagram
Ayers moved from Canberra to Adelaide to join Altschwager after they decided to team up last year.
They’ve since twice broken their classification’s 2000m world record, won world championship gold and been crowned 2023 World Rowing Para Crew of the Year.
“In the boat is one thing, but then there’s [our connection] out of the boat, and I think they complement each other,” Altschwager said.
“I think having each other’s back and understanding that we’re both human beings and we have other things external to rowing and life’s life [is important to us].
“I think it helps that we’re a little older … We just have a little more of a perspective on life and I think that complements our friendship.
“First and foremost we’re human beings and we support each other and we get around each other, and from there, if we can make a boat go fast then that’s a bonus.
“You sort of figure out this language in the boat that’s not too many words. Nikki makes a lot of the calls in the race, and you might have a whole sentence boiled down to one word and we both know what it means.”
Ayers said she and Altschwager met on the 2017 camp and “just clicked automatically”.
Altschwager (left) and Ayers have won world championship gold and are now eying Paralympic gold. Benedict Tufnell/World Rowing
“We got along and built a really good friendship from that,” she said.
“And for some reason those catalysts in our lives [the traumatic accidents] led us both to this point together. Jed had his trauma and he’s overcome that his way, and I’ve overcome my trauma my way. I think it gave us similarity becoming para-rowers and overcoming adversity.”
The unstoppable duo will begin their pursuit of Paralympic gold next Saturday morning (AEST) at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the venue at which Jess and Noemie Fox won Olympic canoe slalom gold medals.
The PR3 mixed double sculls is an event for one male and one female with arms, trunk and leg function, who row with two oars each.
“Being on that start line about to start racing is relaxing,” Ayers said, “because we have that trust, we have that bond and we know that each of us are going to be giving more than 110 per cent out there and are going to back each other up no matter what.
“Just before we’re about to sit in the boat and get ready, we give each other a little fist bump as if to say, ‘Let’s go’.”
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