Hillsboro’s Lindsey Zurbrugg prepping for second Paralympic Games

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Twelve years ago, Hillsboro native Lindsey Zurbrugg could’ve never imagined where she is now.

“I wasn’t planning on going to college because I wanted to do construction with my dad,” recalled Zurbrugg.

Everything transformed in a split second in the summer of 2011 though.

That’s when she simply stretched at a basketball camp and became paralyzed from the waist down. It was due to a rare neurological condition she didn’t even know she had called Tethered Cord Syndrome.

The event changed her life, but not in the way you would expect.

“Then I got an opportunity to start playing wheelchair basketball and I’m like, ‘Oh this is kind of fun. Maybe I could help get a degree paid for,’” said Zurbrugg. “Then low and behold, I have a degree. Now I’m in a dietic internship, about to become a registered dietician soon and about to go to my second Paralympic Games.”

As you can tell, Zurbrugg's attitude about an event that would normally sadden some people, has done anything but.

“We always actually said in my family that it was some kind of blessing in disguise. Like, instead of my world getting flipped upside down, it actually got flipped right side up because I started finding some purpose,” said Zurbrugg. “I was like, ‘Wow, I can actually make a change and be a difference.’ A lot of people when I first got injured, they were like, ‘Man, she’s so positive.’ I don’t know, I’ve always had this attitude that there’s enough negativity in the world, why do I need to bring more into it?”

Zurbrugg is looking to put a little more positivity into the world and follow up her bronze at the 2020 Paralympics with the ultimate medal of all.

“Let’s just go crush all the competition. Let’s just get it done. I don’t even want it to be a close game. I’d rather it’d be by 40 points and a blowout. I love a good blowout,” said Zurbrugg, whose main competition will be a Netherlands squad that won at the 2020 Paralympics as well as the last two World Championships in 2018 and 2022.

First and foremost for Zurbrugg though, it’s not about the medal around her neck, but rather about the name on her chest.

“For Tokyo? It was probably like, ‘Holy frick! This is real,’” said Zurbrugg of her reaction the first time she wore the Team USA uniform at the Paralympic Games. “I love it. There’s no better feeling than to wear USA across your chest and go out there and do something for something bigger than yourself.”