Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WILSONVILLE, Ore. — The U.S. Paralympic Trials were this week, and one Wilsonville teen hopes to be there one day.
Kayla Bolnick was the Junior Athlete of the Year for Adaptive Sports Northwest. If you tell her she can't, be sure to know that she will.
"I've always had people telling me I can't do something, and I'm like, 'Yes I can,' and I show them wrong," said Bolnick.
Bolnick said she has one thing in mind when she hits the track — to just go.
The 15-year-old Wilsonville High School sophomore was born with spina bifida.
"She got mad and said, 'I can't do things the way they can.' I said, 'Yeah, so, and?'" said Bolnick's father Eric.
Kayla is now road tripping to Los Angeles for the second year of the Angel City Games on the UCLA campus, a rare west coast outlet for competition against fellow Paralympic athletes.
"It's one step closer to something. For me, it's the Paralympics, it's where I want to go," Bolnick said.
Bolnick aspired to be like her friend from the Junior Wheel Blazers, Vancouver's Yan Hoang. Hoang currently attends the University of Illinois.
"She is my role model. She has done so much that I want to be like her when I grow up," Bolnick said.
After Los Angeles, Kayla's off to the runway to board a flight to the Adaptive Sports USA Junior Nationals in Middleton, Wisconsin.
On days where she is not on the track, Bolnick is in the pool, also on the Wildcats swim team.
Next year, her scores will count towards the team totals, thanks to a much-overdue rule change by the OSAA.
Copyright 2016 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
