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A significant knee injury and two bouts of coronavirus this year couldn’t keep Maddi Leblanc down or from competing for Canada on the international stage.

As the Welland native prepared for a trip to Poland, one could hear the excitement and enthusiasm in her voice as she spoke about the International Canoe Federation’s (ICF) SUP (Standup Paddleboard) World Championships.

It marks the first time in four years that Leblanc, 25, has been able to step back on a SUP and compete for the country, along with six of her Team Canada teammates — Emilie Fournel, Tamas Buday, Tim Oliver, Daniel Miller, Danielle Holdsworth and Kirsty MacMillian.

“I went to China to compete in the worlds in 2018. I still can’t believe that,” she said.

Leblanc never expected to be on the team back then as she was unable to make a competition in Victoria, B.C., where coaches were to select the roster for the International Surf Association (ISA) World SUP Paddleboard Championships.

But a vacancy on the team opened up an opportunity to compete in China for the now general manager of Toronto-based Surf the Greats. She competed in two events, technical and distance, finishing 27th overall in technical, and second on the Canadian team. That year she also had three first-place finishes in the Ontario Race Series and finished second at the provincial championships and fourth in the eastern Canadian finals.

“I always wanted to go compete again but the opportunity never presented itself,” said Leblanc, who completed her masters studies at Brock University in outdoor recreation and leisure.

In 2019, she competed in the nationals for a spot on Team Canada in the ISA worlds in El Salvador, but the Canadian Surf Association did not send a contingent to the Central American nation.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, cancelling world championships in 2020.

“There were worlds planned for 2021 but our team captain, Tamas Buday, said with the state of the world international travel was probably not the best thing to do.”

The 2021 championships were held in Hungary and Leblanc had it on her racing calendar and was training for it.

She knew the worlds were being held in Poland this year and kept it on her radar but wasn’t getting her hopes up, especially when the global pandemic seemed to be on the rise again. The Russian invasion and war in Ukraine also played a factor for her.

With gyms closed, she started to work out at a friend’s house to stay in shape and she contracted the coronavirus twice.

“With everything happening I planned to wait it out and see how things would play out.”

Thankfully, things worked in favour for her and the team.

However, in May, while skateboarding on a pump track in Lincoln she fell and injured her left knee. Pump tracks, originally designed for BMX riders but later used by skateboarders, are a series of rollers, banked turns and features designed to be ridden by pumping up and down through body movements instead of using a foot to push.

A bone bruise, sprained ACL and partially torn meniscus saw Leblanc forced to wear a brace all day, every day for every activity, even walking around the Toronto shop.

“I was just cleared in the last two weeks. I only have to wear it during high-risk activities. I do have a full range of motion but feel it if all of my weight is on that knee. Doctors told me it will take six months to a year to heal,” said Leblanc, who will wear the brace while competing in Poland.

“I won’t be surfing for a bit,” she said, adding that is a high-risk activity. Leblanc SUP surfs at Pleasant Beach on Lake Erie.

She’s grateful to be racing and competing in the worlds in Gdynia, Poland, with a population of more than 243,000, on the Baltic Sea. Gdynia is about an hour north of the port city of Gdansk.

“I’ll be competing in the technical and distance races. There are men’s and women’s divisions where each athlete wins in their respective division and at the end all of the points they get count together for the country.”

Leblanc, who organized and ran the OnBoard fundraiser on Welland Recreational Canal for years, is staying away from the sprint race, which would put too much pressure on her knee.

“The technical course is a kilometre long and has quite a few buoy turns. It’s almost like sprinting but there are two to three laps in the race.”

Turns are something Leblanc is always working on, trying to perfect going around a buoy the quickest and smoothest way possible.

Distance races are usually between 12 and 16 kilometres long.

She said the team — she’s paddled with every single member over the years — is leaving for Poland Sunday so they can acclimatize to the six-hour time difference and get some practice on the open sea. Her teammate Daniel Miller was part of Team Canada in 2018 when she competed.

“We need to get our equipment dialled in.”

Leblanc will be competing on a Starboard racing SUP and said the company is shipping a board to Poland for her. Racing SUPs are slimmer than standard SUPs, like those typically used at Welland’s Rentals @ the Docks at Rotary Park of Welland.

Her races will be on Friday and Sunday.

“I’m super grateful for this experience. I’m excited to keep learning and growing in my paddle journey,” said Leblanc, who has been SUPing since 2013 and competing since 2016.

She said the team trip is self-funded and that three weeks ago the group Women Networking in Sports of Niagara gave her a grant, which helped her “immensely.”

Women Networking In Sports of Niagara describes itself as a social group of like-minded women working together to empower female athletes in the region to assist females of all ages in sports directly by giving them the opportunity to participate and compete in sports. On its website, it said female athletes/teams can apply for funding directly or have someone apply on their behalf.

“They deserve a big shout-out,” said Leblanc.

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