Anja Adler’s car is immediately recognizable. A bright red Renault with her name printed on the outside. She drives it with the throttle down through the streets of Halle on a rainy first day in July. Her wheelchair is stowed in the trunk.
There is also a photo on the car showing Adler in a kayak. It could be understood as an announcement, something like: Here comes one of the best para-canoeists in Germany. The 34-year-old is travelling to the Paralympics in Paris and will also paddle for medals in the Vaires-Torcy leisure complex. Her life was turned upside down in 2015 when she fell in a mountain accident and survived paralyzed.
This means that she is one of the half of the athletes on the German team who were not born with a disability. But she has not let this get her down, on the contrary: “I actually carry on living my life as before.” Adler has always been a sports enthusiast. She got that from her parents, she said at the meeting in July. “They always let me do everything I wanted.” Among other things, she tried rhythmic gymnastics, gymnastics and even ski jumping for two years. But she was most successful in athletics: in 2015 she made it into the top 10 in the walking at the German championships.
Away from sport, Adler, a trained geologist, spent a lot of time in cave systems. “Sometimes I was in the caves for two weeks, taking samples for 24 hours at a time, four days in a row,” she says. In 2015, she and her team were out in the southern Harz region to take a water sample when the accident happened. A rocky outcrop broke away and Adler fell about 15 meters. “When I landed at the bottom, it wasn’t that bad at first,” she remembers. “The only thing was that I was lying headfirst down the slope and was in danger of slipping into the water.”
A blessing in disguise
Thanks to the trained rescue team, Adler was rescued within four hours. “I was lucky that the emergency doctor was able to abseil directly to me. Otherwise it would have been much worse,” she says. She still keeps in touch with her life-saving team and regularly organizes barbecues.
After the accident, she underwent emergency surgery in the hospital in Nordhausen to stabilize her spine. The next day, she was transferred by intensive care ambulance to the BG Klinikum Bergmannstrost in Halle. There she underwent three more operations. She stayed there for a total of eight months. “I had a burst fracture of the first lumbar vertebra, which also resulted in incomplete paraplegia. Then a broken rib and a bruised hip,” is how Adler describes her injuries. But she was lucky in her misfortune: “I didn’t even have a concussion,” she says.
Adler’s parents did not leave their daughter’s side during this time. When they were informed of the accident, they set off immediately. “I only know this from hearsay, but they probably didn’t say a word during the entire trip,” says Adler.
Overall, it was a long process to come to terms with her paraplegia. However, she was able to accept the new situation and deal with it better than her family. “They weren’t there for every therapy session, they couldn’t listen to what was going on with me. But I saw the development in myself,” says Adler. She was prepared for her new everyday life during a five-month rehabilitation program in Kreischa, Saxony. Physiotherapy was part of the program there – she also learned how to use a wheelchair. She turned down psychological counseling: “It got me down more than it helped me.”
What helped was a tradition that has continued to this day: Anja’s Thursday. Every fourth day of the week, she received visits from her friends. “We usually ate pizza, played games or gossiped when the men weren’t there,” laughs Adler. The tradition continues to this day – even in Paris. “Six friends will come,” she announces. The decisions in the para-canoe are due next weekend.
The foundation for her successful sports career was laid after her accident in Bergmannstrost. Adler met the then national coach of the German para-canoeists, who works as a physiotherapist in the accident clinic. He invited Adler to a trial training session, but she was unable to accept the invitation due to the corset she was wearing at the time for stabilization.
She tried other sports such as wheelchair basketball or table tennis – then she came back to the offer. “The desire for an outdoor sport was great,” says Adler. She is a nature-loving person. After studying meteorology, the 34-year-old now works as a climate and environmental manager at Bergmannstrost and can perfectly combine work and sport. “The commitment there in the field of disabled sports is incredible,” says Adler. The clinic has been a partner of the Saxony-Anhalt Disabled and Rehabilitation Sports Association for over ten years and promotes para-canoeing in Halle and also Adler as one of its sponsors.
Today, Adler tries to live her life as independently as possible. The car with hand throttle offers freedom, and work and sport are also very easy to do without barriers. If she does need support, her family is always there and helps her with things like shopping. She was able to make her apartment in the basement of her parents’ house in the middle of Halle almost completely barrier-free.
To relax, Adler has a special hobby: she sorts her mineral collection. “When I can delve into geology, I’m in another world,” she enthuses, and talks about the doctoral thesis she is planning. Adler had almost all of her data and measurements before the accident. She just didn’t have the time to write.
And after the accident, Adler even went back to caves. She did the last rehearsals in a wheelchair. “It was a real challenge, of course,” she says. “But with the help of my colleagues and my family, I managed it.” A sentence that could represent Anja Adler’s entire life.
