Valley Christian School: For Elizabeth Floch, a journey that began in China will continue in Alabama

Elizabeth Floch handles the questions as gracefully as she moves her wheelchair down a basketball court.

The well-intended questions come mostly from fellow students at Valley Christian, where Floch will graduate with honors next month.

“Sometimes they will ask, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ ” said Floch, who explained she was born with transverse myelitis, which left her weakened below the waist.

“But I always answer that I’m just the same as everyone else,” Floch said. “I am who I am.”

Despite the limits imposed by her condition, Floch has excelled in the classroom, the track and the basketball court – enough so in the latter that she earned a scholarship to play this fall at the University of Alabama.

That’s remarkable in any context, but Floch began life in a Chinese orphanage. While there she discovered paralympic sports, then was adopted at 10 by Clay and Jewel Floch of Spokane Valley.

Floch’s passion for wheelchair sports grew from there. Through Parasport Spokane and its director, Lisa Skinner, she found success on the track.

“I love it,” Floch said. “After school, I’m on the track, training every single day,” Floch said.

Floch competes in the T54 classification, which includes athletes with spinal cord injuries but have normal hand and arm function.

Floch has succeeded at regional, national and international levels. By 2017, she was competing in Switzerland at the World Para Athletics Junior Championships, where she took a silver medal in the 800 meters and bronze in the 100, 200 and 400.

“It’s a big thing, and I’m really thankful that I was selected to be a part of it,” Floch said. “It’s really cool that I was able to participate a long way from home, getting a different experience and getting out of my comfort zone.”

A year later, Floch took three more medals at the Arizona Grand Prix. In 2019 she was back in Switzerland for the World Juniors and claimed a bronze medal.

At Valley Christian, she served as ASB treasurer and was honored this spring by the Spokane Scholars Foundation for her excellence in science.

“She’s just the most positive, gracious gal while dealing with a pretty difficult situation as far as mobility,” said her counselor, Jessic Kenlein-Burns. “She just does all the things that everyone else does.”

Actually Floch will be doing even more this fall.

For all her excellence in track, Floch prefers basketball.

“I just like the team aspect of basketball – playing for a goal at one end and then defending the goal,” said Floch, who will be on a full-ride scholarship at Alabama.

Floch’s dreams go far beyond the court.

“I’m hoping one day to be a teacher, because I want help students,” she said.