Yass local wins gold at Water Skiing World Championships

But it's not just water-skiing that Sam has mastered, now running a successful business teaching people how to knit the way she does, one handed.

In October 2013, heading home from work, Sam was in a car accident, and then she was involved in another accident while in the ambulance on the way to the hospital along the Barton Highway.

"Same stretch of road, two different states, on a Sunday morning, in a matter of 45 minutes, I ended up with a brain stem and a spinal cord injury, and I'm paralysed down my right-hand-side," Miss Longmore said.

Sam suffered a concertina fold of the brain stem, along with fractures of the C2 to C4 vertebrates, as well as dislocation of the C4 and C5 vertebrates, impacting the spinal cord and brain.

Prior to the car accident, Sam had discovered a passion for the agriculture industry and wool in particular after getting her first job lamb marking at the age of 12.

One year after her accident, Sam was in search of a new career path as her previous plans of getting into the army after being accepted had been changed due to her injuries.

"I was a little bit stuck on what I wanted to do for a living. Obviously, after having my accident, my career path changed," Miss Longmore said.

"Prior to that, I was farm contracting, working for people, working in the sheds, and fell in love with wool while looking for a new career path.

"I was mentally a bit unwell after my situation and didn't really want to be part of the community that I am currently a part of, which is the disabled community."

Not being where she ever thought she would be, Sam wanted to reconnect with the ag industry she had fallen in love with and her friends within it.

"For me, I loved creativity, and I love the ag world, and I wanted to combine those two things and create a business from that," she said.

"I was never a knitter and still am not a knitter, but I've been knitting for the last eight years, using some beautiful Merino wool and teaching other people how to do that."

Her business 'Ohh Bulldust' took off, with Ms Longmore travelling around the state conducting workshops and spreading her love of wool with eager women and men.

Initially sourcing the wool herself, Sam was involved in the process of getting the wool off the sheep's back to then transforming the fleece into a knitable fibre.

But as her business has grown, she has now formed strong relationships within the wool industry, with a major supplier being Nundle Woolen Mill, Nundle, near Tamworth, where she receives a roving (a loose fibre form), which she then takes through to the long felted length of fibre that everyone has grown to love and knit blankets with.

Sam has a plan in mind to eventually have sheep with her partner Jude, to be able to complete the fleece to fashion concept themselves.

Being heavily involved in sports her whole life, Sam tried different activities but struggled to be able to take part due to only having use of one side of her body, which was also her non-dominant side.

Having a love for water skiing prior to her accident and seeing an able-bodied person sit-skiing on the dam one day, Sam researched the opportunities to try the sport within her new abilities and found the NSW Disabled Waterski Club, which held come-and-try days in Sydney.

"So I booked myself in for one of the come and try days, and my love of sit-skiing has blossomed from there," Miss Longmore said.

"I first had a crack at sit skiing about four years ago, just before COVID-19.

"I sucked at it, hardcore sucked at it."

One of the biggest challenges for the now two-time gold medalist was being able to balance with her core muscles, which were lacking.

"Because you get pulled up exactly the same way as an able-bodied skier, you ski just as fast, and I've only got the use of one hand, so it was a long, hard slog," she said.

"But the best part about it is not only can I do that sport with my mates of a weekend, over Christmas holidays, things like that but I can do it as a competitive sport.

"For me, those two things are very important, and in the competitive world, with water skiing, you're not just skiing with other disabled people, you're skiing alongside able-bodied people in all the competitions, except the world championships, which is important because, for me, it's about equality and showing other people that no matter your circumstance, for the most part, you can come out the back of adversity and move forward.

"I've been able to do that in both my personal life, my career and now my sporting career and lucky enough to go to the world championships in September in Sacramento.

"That's exciting, and I'm the only girl on the team, which was even more exciting."

With a dedicated training resume and meeting the criteria at the Australian Skiing Nationals, held in Perth, WA, in April earlier this year, Sam was the only female picked for the team to make the trip to the US.

After training in less than ideal conditions during autumn and winter in Australia, the team had one week in Port Macquarie training before the trip.

"It just means doing the hard yards, making sure you don't put on weight so you can still fit in your cradle, as they are made for you," Miss Longmore said.

"Your gear is not gear you can just get off a shelf; everything is either made brand new, and it's going to cost you $3000 for a new ski, or you buy a $1500 or $200 old ski, that's 20 years old that needs to have a lot of work done to it like I had to buy.

"All my gear is second-hand, it's expensive.

"I tell people having a disability, especially when it comes to sporting equipment, it's like you buy a cake for a birthday, it's going to cost you $50, you buy a cake for a wedding, it's going to cost you $500, you buy a cake for someone that has a disability, it's going to cost you five grand.

"A lot of people think that every single person who has a disability is covered by some kind of funding and insurance scheme, but not all of those schemes fund that sort of thing."

Miss Longmore said the weightlessness of her body in the water makes her feel like everyone else.

"It's powerful being in the water when you've got any kind of injury, let alone a lifelong injury, makes you feel good," she said.

"It's not about my opinion with the disabled community and us being integrated into the general population, It's not about having the same opportunities, it's not about us needing more, it's just about being treated equally and fair.

"And everyone in the water-skiing community does that."

The trip overseas saw Sam come home as a two-time gold medalist while also breaking world records, receiving gold in the overall seated women section, gold in the seated women's jump, silver in the overall tournament and bronze in the seated women's division.

But success didn't stop there for the Yass local, with Sam going on to break the MP1 seated women's jump twice.

"I broke the initial record by 20 centimetres, the record was 11.2 metres, with my jump being 11.4m," Miss Longmore said.

"I then broke my own record on my last jump by a metre, from 11.4m to 12.4m."

"It was the most epic experience being surrounded by others with a variety of disabilities who are world-class athletes all after the same thing: personal growth, team gold, really truly belonging to something and showing the world that there are so many opportunities out there to strive towards no matter your ability."