The story of Paralympian Lauren Woolstencroft’s emotional path to glory is told in one of Toyota’s commercials for the 2018 Super Bowl.
The ad, titled Good Odds, depicts her as a baby back in 1981 when she was born missing both legs below the knees and her left arm below the elbow.
A caption reads: “Odds of winning a gold medal? 1 in 997,500,000” — before the odds begin to drop as she grows up. We see her learning to walk using her knees, and learning to ski and dance ballet.
At one point she falls while skiing, as the lyrics of the song in the background say: “If you knock me down, I get up again.”
Who is Lauren Woolstencroft?
Lauren is an eight-time Paralympic gold medal winner for Canada, as well as a qualified electrical engineer. She was born in Calgary in 1981 with her left arm missing below the elbow as well as both legs below the knees.
However, despite her disability she began skiing at the age of four and later started competing in the sport at the age of 14. She won two golds and a bronze at the 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City, a gold and a silver in Turin in 2006, and five golds in Vancouver in 2010.
She competed in the Giant Slalom, Slalom, Super-G, Downhill Skiing, and Super Combined events.