Normally it’s an accident that causes permanent limb damage and not the act that repairs it, but Monique va der Vorst didn’t live this cliched story. The paralympic cyclist and two-time silver medalist recently got into an accident and found herself left with a bit of a surprise — after 14 years of living in a wheelchair, she could suddenly walk again.

“I still cannot believe I’m actually walking, having sat in a wheelchair since I was [13] years old,” she said

Now, the 27-year-old Dutch woman is trying to win another Olympic medal, as an able-bodied cyclist at the 2016 Olympics in the Netherlands.

Doctors cannot explain her sudden recovery. Van der Vorst had a series of injuries over the years that first left her paralyzed from the hip down, and then later from the waist down.

She didn’t allow her injuries to stand in her way of achieving greatness. “I had actually been quite happy with my situation,” she said. “Now I [will] have to leave the paraplegic Olympic team.”

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