From China to Bemidji, Chloe Kirkpatrick defied all odds to win sled hockey gold

Nov. 22—At 7 years old, Chloe Kirkpatrick was taken out of her wheelchair and placed into a van in Ma'anshan, Anhui, China. She didn't know the people taking her, and she didn't know where she was going.

Waiting for her 800 miles away was Bradi Kirkpatrick, who was soon to be Chloe's adopted mother. Bradi, who taught English and drama classes overseas, had spent the last two and half years visiting Chloe's orphanage before legally becoming her guardian in 2012.

Bradi and her parents, Tom and Melody, spent hours hoping the van would show. And once it did, a new family was officially formed before returning to the United States.

"It was a terrifying process," Chloe said. "(I didn't know) I was being adopted. They just kind of put me in a van and drove me away."

"We weren't sure if she was even going to show up or if the people were going to bring her to us," Bradi added.

Chloe is 18 years old now and a senior at Bemidji High School. She was born with spina bifida and two clubbed feet. And despite living her life in a wheelchair, she's one of Bemidji's most impressive athletes.

On Sept. 3, Chloe won her second sled hockey gold medal in a 2-0 win over Canada. She played for Team USA in the 2023 Para Ice Hockey Women's World Challenge in Green Bay, Wis., and she was part of a defensive unit that pitched four shutouts.

Chloe's rise to the top of women's sled hockey isn't a miracle but rather a profound testament to a once-in-a-lifetime level of determination.

"Honestly, I'm really proud of myself to make it this far," Chloe said. "At 7 years old, I didn't think I'd be playing this sport or any sport. Now, I've won two gold medals. This is pretty big for me. ... A lot of these (players) start hockey at 5 years old, and they play into their 30s. I got introduced when I was 9 or 10, and now I'm here."

After leaving a difficult job in Bemidji, Bradi needed a change of scenery. She moved halfway across the world and found a fresh start in China in 2007 as a teacher.

"I spoke kindergarten-level Chinese," Bradi said. "I was terrible, but it was enough."

While spending her free time exploring a foreign land and building connections with new people, Bradi had no idea that it would lead to her returning home with an adopted daughter.

She met Chloe for the first time the day after Christmas in 2009. Bradi phoned her parents back in the States, saying that she'd be visiting a care center for orphans and disabled adults during the holidays. Tom and Melody shipped small rubber ducks for Bradi to share with the fostered kids. She turned it into a routine, bringing small toys for the kids to play with whenever she could.

"It was a welfare home, almost kind of like a nursing home," Bradi recalled. "It was a place for people who had nowhere else to be. There were older adults there with developmental and intellectual disabilities."

In one corner on the first floor was Chloe, who was 4 years old when she first met Bradi. Due to her disability, she didn't receive the care or attention the other kids her age garnered. Instead, she was stricken to the main level of a building that wasn't handicap accessible, and she was tasked with bathing the kids younger than her.

Bradi's visits became more frequent and her bond with Chloe grew each time. It reached an emotional tipping point, one that led to Bradi calling her parents to set up an adoption plan. However, the process was a burdensome gauntlet that took two and a half years to flesh out.

"You're not supposed to be able to go to a country and pick out a kid," Bradi said. "She wasn't even eligible for adoption at that point, either. We had to go through a year of work to get her to be eligible.

"I had to go through my friends in China to help navigate things with the orphanage and the Chinese government. They had to ask the town if anybody claimed this child, then the province and then nationally."

Chloe doesn't have any recollection of her birth family. And while Chloe went unclaimed, the supervisors at her orphanage tried to deter Bradi from bringing her back home.

"The women there were ruthless to her," Bradi said. "They'd hold her up and say, 'Why don't you pick a boy? Why don't you pick another one?' Could you imagine how tormenting that would be?"

Chloe's schooling opportunities were almost nonexistent in China.

"If a child had any chance of (being adopted), they were really good about sending them to school," Bradi said. "Chloe was not going to school. Schools were usually six-story walk-ups. Her world was only going to be in the corner of that orphanage."

Chloe's van ride across China was the first of many long drives. Once the Kirkpatricks resettled back in Bemidji, Chloe started receiving care she would've never gotten in her birth country.

In time, she obtained adaptive equipment, physical treatment, crutches and more resources to help lower the hurdles of the life in front of her. Chloe also received medical attention and underwent procedures at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Early on in Bemidji, Chloe's life in her new home still presented challenges.

"We already knew she was incredible before she started playing sports," Bradi said. "Our house wasn't really wheelchair accessible. She just crawled over everything and everybody."

There was also a language barrier for Chloe, but she crossed it with the help of one of Bradi's former students.

"None of this would've been possible without my student Fang Fang," Bradi said. "She was my student the first year I was over (in China), and she latched on to me. ... She kind of became like a teacher's assistant to me. Eventually, once she graduated, she got herself to Bemidji State. She's an extraordinary, wonderful, ambitious individual. She lived in the apartment that's behind my parent's garage. It gave us a little Chinese pair right here in Bemidji."

It wasn't until Chloe was 9 years old when she got on the ice for the first time in a sled, which happened completely by accident.

"My dad was looking for a basketball camp for her but actually found a sled hockey camp," Bradi said. "It was a free thing we did and the rest is history. She got on the ice and it just clicked. That's what she was made to do."

Chloe tried other para sports — every one she could get her hands in. She won a surfing competition and excelled at downhill skiing. But the controlled chaos inside the hockey rink kept pulling her back.

Her first exposure to sled hockey was with Hope Inc., an organization in Moorhead committed to promoting sports and recreational opportunities critical to the health and development of children and adults with mobility challenges.

It didn't take Chloe long to get the hang of being on the sled.

"The first time I tried it, the coach wanted me to keep playing, so I did," she recalled. "It was the first time I was able to be out of my chair. I was able to go on the ice without having to be restricted. I just fell in love with hockey."

Her on-ice talent led to more drives from Bemidji to Moorhead, a trip she takes once a week to practice on weekends.

"It's just what she loves," Bradi said. "We have three people rotating for who brings her. We do irrational things to get her to hockey. We drive through the worst weather. We would illegally cross borders to get her to hockey."

"Just please don't get arrested," Chloe quipped back with a laugh.

Her commitment to sled hockey started paying dividends outside of the Moorhead area. Chloe began receiving invites to travel around the country to play in tournaments, eventually landing her a spot on Team USA.

At 17, her first crack at the Para Ice Hockey Women's World Challenge in 2022 was short-lived. Chloe suffered a concussion in the second period during the first game. She was held out of the remainder of the tournament and watched her team win a gold medal. It was a hollow experience that exemplified her maturity.

"She was so sweet about it," Bradi said. "They had two players that couldn't play because they had too many on her roster. I asked her how she was doing, and she said, 'Because I can't play, one of my teammates — who found out when they got to Green Bay that they weren't allowed to play — got to play.' She said that to me, and I thought, 'God, you're a good sport.'"

A year later, Chloe got another shot. She played on a defense that didn't allow a goal throughout the entirety of the tournament, compiling two shutout wins over Canada at the Cornerstone Community Center.

In 2022, Chloe watched from the viewing area as her teammates took their helmets off and threw them in the air in celebratory fashion as the clock on the scoreboard read zeroes. She spent a year envisioning what that moment would feel like and said the real thing exceeded her expectations.

"It's a wonderful experience," Chloe added. "We beat Canada in their own game. How many people get to do that?"

Upon returning to Bemidji after another victorious trip to Wisconsin, Chloe's life abruptly returned to normal. There was no fanfare for Bemidji's gold medalist. In fact, most of her peers didn't notice she was gone.

"Not many people at school know I've won two gold medals," Chloe said. "They don't ask. I tried to bring people to the (

open house sled hockey event

) here in the summer, and only a couple of people showed up that I knew, and most of them were (Bradi's) friends. ... It's hard to get people to willingly come.

"If I told people I was a hockey player, won two gold medals and I travel all around the country, they'd be like, 'Yeah, OK.' They have a pep rally for kids going to state. I'm over here winning gold medals for Team USA."

Chloe isn't the only one who struggles with the lack of recognition. It's a sour reality for many para athletes across all sports.

"I don't need Chloe to be famous," Bradi said. "I just want her to get credit, for everyone to get credit. You go to Canada, and they (show) para sports on TV. They are recognized as athletes. Here, Chloe can roll around in a USA jersey all day, and people just talk loudly at her because she's in a wheelchair."

While her story might be a mystery to the people she shares a classroom with, people in the para sports community are starting to take notice. She's becoming Chloe Kirkpatrick: a recognized competitor and feared defensive phenom for Team USA. She said she didn't get into it to be a role model but understands that she's helping pave the way for more kids like her to find their lane in sports.

Whenever Chloe gets in the car to go to practice or on a plane for a tournament, she's exposing herself to more people like her and picking up new tricks along the way.

"Before I got into sled hockey, I didn't know a lot of people who were disabled like me or face the same challenges like me," Chloe said. "When you join a sport or a team, you actually get to meet those people. You get to talk to each other and give each other advice on things you didn't know about.

"I didn't know I could bring my bag for free on airlines. You get tips that you wish you had a long time ago, tips that make life a little easier. You build lasting friendships, ones that last the rest of your life."

Chloe and Bradi are in the process of filling out college applications. Chloe has her sights set on the University of Minnesota but is open to finding any school that will expose her to new challenges worth tackling.

Her story was never meant to have a happy ending. Chloe was never supposed to play sports or become a remarkable athlete. She was doomed to fail. But when life threw its heaviest uppercut at her, she chose to punch back.

Her path to excellence isn't one of luck or fortune. Instead, it's a story of how Chloe's ambition and perseverance were greater than the struggles that stood in her way.

"She's a good kid, and she deserves the world," Bradi said. "There are a lot of things in my life that I regret, a lot of things that I wish I could do over again. But when I think about those things, I always remember that if one thing is out of place, I don't get Chloe. She's my world, the best thing that ever happened to me."