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SALT LAKE CITY — For Lisa Chandler, the Utah Swords Academy in Salt Lake City feels like a second home.
"When you come into the club, you leave everything else outside," said Chandler.
She had never fenced before and admits didn't even really know people in wheelchairs competed in the sport. That all changed a little more than a year ago.
"I'm an analytical thinker and the strategy behind it just blows me away," she said.
Chandler hasn't always been in a wheelchair.
"Ten years ago I was at work and fell off a roof and sustained a spinal cord injury," she said.
Doctors told her she was paralyzed from the waist down.
"I found out there was no fix and that was kind of hard to take," she remembered.
Lisa found out she's tougher than any diagnosis.
"You just learn how to adapt to what your situation is," she said.
In Chandler's case, that meant finding a new purpose.
"I sat down and I started doing this and it was amazing to see how quickly I really picked it up," she said.
In the short time she's been doing it, Chandler has climbed the wheelchair fencing ranks. She is now ranked sixth in the world for the sport.
This week marks the wheelchair fencing competition in Rio de Janeiro at the Paralympic games. Lisa is not there.
"I don't qualify because I haven't been to enough international competitions and regional events," she said.
Despite her high ranking, she's just too new at the sport.
"Basically they just said they couldn't overrule it because rules are rules," she said.
The news was a tough blow, but she's choosing to look ahead.
"Tokyo 2020 Paralympics for sure," she said with a smile.
She has four more years of waiting to compete on the ultimate stage. She plans to spend that time training with her coach and continues to find support from The Utah Fencing Association.
"I'm just going to focus more on trying to get where I am going," she said. "I'm just going to keep getting stronger and better."
Chandler now considers herself a sort of ambassador for a sport she's grown to love.
"Yeah, I think I did find my place." she said.
