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Just over a year after discovering Para Canoe, QAS-supported athlete Susanna Wills has raced at her first world championships. Now, she wants to find out how far she can go.
The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) supported athlete has capped a remarkable first chapter in Para canoe with her World Championships debut in Poznań, Poland, reaching two A finals and earning valuable qualification points on the road to the LA 2028 Paralympic Games.
For Wills, arriving at her first World Championships brought a moment of perspective.
“It was pretty surreal to be at my first World Championships,” Wills said.
“The last six months had been focused largely on getting to this point, with the World Championships as a goal, but when I actually arrived and had the opportunity to compete in the green and gold, it really hit me how quickly everything had changed.”
Sport has long been part of Wills’ life.
Growing up in Emerald, she participated in a wide range of activities, including swimming, gymnastics, rugby, and triathlon. She later attended the Australian Defence Force Academy before building a career as a structural engineer.
In May 2023, a mountain biking accident resulted in a spinal cord injury, followed by major surgery, five months in hospital and an extended rehabilitation.
As Wills adjusted to a different future, sport once again became a source of purpose.
She explored swimming, wheelchair basketball and Para cycling before discovering Para canoe after the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Not long after, she was on the water herself.
The beginning was far from effortless. Learning to balance the narrow kayak meant capsizing, climbing back in and trying again.
But progress came quickly.
In 2025, Wills came through the YouFor2032 Para pathway and became one of the emerging athletes supported through the QAS Para Unit.
Para canoe soon became her focus.
Wills relocated from Brisbane to the Gold Coast to immerse herself in the QAS Para Unit and train under Paddle Australia National Para Canoe Head Coach Anna Wood.
International selection soon followed.
At her first World Cup, Wills finished sixth in the women’s KL1 200m.
Then came the World Championships.
“Looking back to just over a year ago, when I was only starting the sport and still discovering where it might take me, made me realise just how far I had come in that time,” Wills said.
Getting there was one achievement.
Believing she belonged there presented another challenge.
“My first World Championships were filled with a lot of nerves and, at times, some big doubts,” Wills said.
Against the world’s best, she learnt to bring her attention back to something much smaller.
Her own race.
“When I focused on my own race and what I could control, I was able to perform,” she said.
Wills finished sixth in the KL1 200m and eighth in the VL2 200m, reaching two A finals on her World Championships debut. Both results also earned qualification points towards LA 2028.
For QAS Para Unit Strength and Conditioning Coach Cameron Lane, who has seen Wills’ development up close, the results were another marker of her rapid progression.
“Susanna’s progression in such a short period has been incredible to watch. She came into the Para Unit relatively new to the sport, but she’s embraced every opportunity to learn, train and challenge herself,” Lane said.
“To see that work translate to two finals at her first World Championships is a great reflection of how far she’s come, and there’s still so much potential ahead of her.”
But perhaps the most important thing Wills brought home was something that does not appear on a results sheet.
Confidence.
“That gave me a lot of confidence,” Wills said.
Little more than a year into Para canoe, Wills has gone from learning to stay upright in a kayak to wearing the green and gold, racing internationally and reaching two World Championships finals.
Now, the focus returns to training and continuing to improve as the LA 2028 Paralympic Games move closer.
“It’s definitely made me hungry to get back into training, keep improving and see what the next year can bring,” Wills said.
There is plenty of work ahead and no guarantee of where the journey will lead.
But her first World Championships changed something.
Just over a year ago, Wills was wondering how far a new sport might take her.
Now, she knows she can race the world’s best.
The next question is how far she can go.
