Unstoppable Tracy Represents Canada at the 2025 Hansa Para Worlds in Australia.
May 22, 2025
By Mathew Channer
Being born without arms and legs has never stopped Tracy “Unstoppable Tracy” Schmitt from pursuing sports and adventure, including mountain climbing, scuba diving, skiing, and particularly sailing.
Schmitt is an author, motivational speaker, and competition sailor who recently returned from representing Canada at the 2025 Hansa Para Worlds in Sydney, where she finished 12th overall in the 303 One Person women’s class.
Schmitt began sailing at a young age, but didn’t pursue it competitively until much later when, during an extremely turbulent plane ride, she feared for her life.
“I declared in that moment, if I live, I’m going to pursue my dream,” she said.
The turbulence immediately settled, the plane landed safely, and Schmitt launched into making her sailing ambitions reality. Despite being repeatedly told she was overreaching, in 2011 she drove to Miami to train with Olympic gold medal sailor and coach Magnus Liljedhal.
“I was up washing and waxing his boats at 5:30am and secretly sleeping in my car in his boatyard for 3 months until finally, he said ‘come on, let’s go sailing’,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt spent five years training and racing internationally. After sailing was dropped from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, she began focusing more on public speaking under the name Unstoppable Tracy. Since then, she has travelled to more than 40 countries as a motivational speaker.
But Schmitt’s passion for sailing did not go away. When she heard that Para World Sailing was gaining global attention and that Canada was not represented at the 2025 Para Worlds in Australia, she was spurred into action.
“I said, ‘well forget that, we’ve got to be there’,” she said.
Schmitt began campaigning for sponsorship and quickly raised both money and equipment to help her along.
“Canada rallied, and people stepped up. I raised $6,000 and received a lot of professional gear,” she said.
A month later, she was on her way to Australia.
Despite her experience, Schmitt faced a steep learning curve when adapting to the Hansa 303 One Person class boat. Previously she had always sailed with an electric winch for the mainsheet and a self-tacking jib, but the Hansa setup required these sails to be handled manually, which Schmitt had to quickly adapt to.
“A big challenge for me as a 4-way amputee was remaining competitive, but I was able to do that. My mistakes were just mistakes, they weren’t because I didn’t have arms and legs,” she said.
“I would have been up higher in the fleet had I not messed around and been too competitive at the start and instead focused on getting a clean air start like my coach told me.”
Schmitt’s race results were up and down, with three good starts and three bad starts, but she says the event was an incredible experience.
“The people were extraordinary,” she said. “The allyship was unbelievable.”
Beyond this event, Schmitt’s involvement is an attempt to boost para sailing internationally and get sailing back into the Paralympic Games, where it has not been represented since 2016.
“My hope is that this reinspires hope for people’s own individual dreams,” she said.
Follow Unstoppable Tracy!
