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Lora Webster | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Profile

Team USA sitting volleyball player Lora Webster explains her journey through bone cancer that changed her life and introduced her to sitting volleyball.

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LORA WEBSTER: Hey, I'm Lora. I was always an athlete, but when I was 11-years-old I was diagnosed with bone cancer right below my left knee. And I had a crazy surgery called rotationplasty, but it allowed me to get right back into sports once I was done with chemo. So I've been-- I played standing volleyball from the time I was five, with a little intermission during treatment, and got back into it. And I played that throughout high school.

I was offered a D1 scholarship, but by that time I had just been introduced to sitting volleyball. And although I was hesitant at first, because I had never played adaptive sports, I realized when I saw it for the first time that it was actually more difficult than the standing game and I fell in love with it. And I saw the challenge that it presented.

And my first games was in 2004 in Athens. We won bronze. And then we got silver in Beijing in '08. And then in 2012 we got another silver. And then finishing with that gold in Rio was a very fun accomplishment. And we're really looking forward to Tokyo.