Less than a year ago Kailee Woitas suffered a serious knee injury that very well could have threatened her track and field career.
“At my second track meet of the year, I, unfortunately, was jumping and landed on my leg wrong, tore my PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), LCL (lateral collateral ligament) and fractured two bones in my knee,” she said. “That was a pretty awful experience. It was really hard to get through it. I was unable to walk for a month and I wasn’t able to get back to training for a few months.”
But with the proper training and rehabilitation, Woitas was back practicing with the University of Regina Cougars track and field team by October. However, there were some limitations.
“Since I hurt myself jumping, it’s been hard to get back into it,” she said. “It’s hard after injuring yourself to put yourself back out there, especially when you’re at risk of injuring yourself again. It’s like you almost just protect yourself in a way.
“So the jumps never really came this season.”
However, the sprinting did. After setting a personal best in the 60-metre sprint in her first meet of the new season, the Regina product went on to win silver in the 60-metre at the Canada West Championships before qualifying for the U Sports national championships, where she finished fifth in the entire country. Plus, she broke the University of Regina school record in the event.
“It was one of the fastest races I’ve ever been in,” said Woitas. “I remember waiting for the results to show up on the board and I was like ‘yep, there it is’ and then everybody came and gave me a hug and it was such a great experience.”
“We knew she was fast,” said Cougars track and field coach Wade Huber. “I didn’t know if I quite expected she would break our school record in her first year but once we got into normal training, we realized she could probably run a very fast time.”
And while recovering from a serious knee injury was challenging enough, Kailee is no stranger to physical adversity, having dealt with scoliosis and a 49-degree curve in her spine, something discovered when she was in Grade 8.
“It was a pretty hard obstacle to overcome at first,” said Woitas. “It’s not something that will ever go away. It’s there forever but with the right training and the right coaches… I’ve been able to train with almost no back pain.”
And while Woitas has experienced many wins already this year, she’s also experienced loss, including the death of her grandmother in March.
“She was truly my number one supporter with everything,” said Woitas.
Then shortly before the national championships, her grandfather passed away. And while the deaths have been hard on her and her family, Kailee has tried to use her grief as motivation.
“I just know that they’re both watching me from above and I couldn’t be luckier to have two people watching over me,” she said. “Obviously loss comes with a lot of grief and it’s really hard to deal with it sometimes but you’ve just got to remember the outlook that that person had on life because I think that’s the legacy that you should carry on.
“It’s given me a lot of motivation just because they motivated me while they were here, so I know they wouldn’t want to give up because of them passing.”
And after a successful first year of competition with the track and field team, there’s no limit on what she could achieve in the years to come.
“I beat my personal best from previous by half a second this year,” said Woitas. “So honestly I don’t know what the future holds. I know it can only go up from here and I know I still have more left in me.”
Her coach agrees.
“I would fully expect she can improve on her 60-metre time and hopefully next year a provincial record in the 60 and continue to progress as hopefully one of the best long jumper/sprinters we’ve had on the team,” said Huber.
Regardless of her success on the track, Kailee now carries a positive outlook and more confidence in herself after dealing with all the bumps life has thrown her way.
“I feel like there’s definitely harder things that people have gone through but everybody’s fight looks different,” said Woitas. “I used to struggle really badly with confidence with track and with school and with everything and it’s finally all come together.
“I’ve never been more proud of myself and I’m really happy to say that.”