B Hatz

Started: She took up athletics in her first year of high school. (YouTube channel, 12 Apr 2020) Reason: She practised softball, basketball, football, snowboarding and skiing when she was younger. She then got involved in athletics after she was challenged by a friend. "It started as a joke, and then I made varsity toward the end of the year, and I was like, 'Oh, I'm actually decent at this'. I ended up really enjoying track and meeting the right people who ended up helping me get involved with [Para athletics] by my junior year [of high school]." (CVEATC Instagram profile, 12 Dec 2022; goldentranscript.net, 31 Dec 2018; columbinecourier.com, 26 Dec 2018) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (northglenn-thorntonsentinel.com, 07 Sep 2021; One Revolution Foundation YouTube channel, 17 Aug 2021) Awards: She won the 2019 Sportswomen of Colorado Award in the high school Para athletics category in the United States of America. (sportswomenofcolorado.org, 01 Jan 2020) In 2018 she was named High School Female Track Athlete of the Year by US Paralympics. (teamusa.org, 29 Nov 2018) Additional Info: COACHING She has worked as an athletics coach at Claremont High School in California, United States of America. "I'm a track and field coach, and one of my athletes, I actually look up to him. His attitude toward the whole sport is why I look up to him. I had a pretty frustrating season, a lot of issues with the prosthetic and having to learn how to do certain things with it and get accustomed to it. It can get frustrating, and sometimes you don't feel that you love the sport the same. But coaching him helped me so much, because this kid would have an amazing day, a great day, or a bad day, and he would still have a smile on his face. And he'd be excited to just compete. He'd always just tell me, 'I'm excited to just be in the sandpit. I'm excited to just be here'." (livingwithamplitude.com, 13 Mar 2024)