HARRIS COUNTY, Ga. (WRBL) — From hospital patient to state champion, 17-year-old Effie Ward has defied the odds.
At age 9, Ward was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation, a condition where brain tissue extends into the spinal cord, and double curve scoliosis.
Ward's family worked with an orthopedic surgeon and pediatric neurosurgeon at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where she had brain surgery to remove the fluid from her spine.
Ward says it took nearly four months to recover from her brain surgery, but her scoliosis required more.
She wore a brace for 22 hours a day to decrease the curve in her spine, which went on for three years.
"It was kind of a big thing for a 9-year-old to grasp with for most of the day," Ward shares. " I was gonna have to wear this back brace and it was really gonna change the way I had to live."
She continues, "I think when I was in it… I really had this faith in God that whatever happened, happened for a reason. And I told my parents all the time, they were like, 'Aren't you worried?' and I'm like, 'No. If I have to have back surgery, then I have to have back surgery. And that's just God's plan.'"
Wearing the brace didn't stop her from doing what she loved, which is running.
"Whenever I went to go run, I got to take the back brace off, so it kind of gave me a little bit of motivation to go out and run," Ward said.
"I remember the first mile running with my mom," she added. "I still ran an 8:30 mile."
In Ward's sophomore year of high school, she won the 2024 GHSA 5A State Championship for the 1600-meter and 3200-meter races.
When asked what nine-year-old Ward would say to her now that she has won the titles, she responded, "She'd probably be like, 'man, that's crazy because I am the most unathletic athlete you've ever met.'"
Her accomplishments didn't end there. In Ward's last season race of her sophomore year, she qualified to compete at Nike Nationals in Oregon.
"I was so nervous, but I was so excited," Ward explains. "I thought, 'OK, well, this is a crazy opportunity.' I went out and I was on pace for a PR. I was in like third place. I was doing amazing. I think everybody was blown away on how well I was doing because I had never ran that well."
"Well, I fell in the sixth lap. I got tripped." Ward said. "At that time… it took a really big toll on me. I went into my junior year of high school with a lack of confidence."
Ward, now a senior in high school, says after speaking with a sports psychologist, she enters into her senior year more confident than ever and has competed a lot better this season.
She has no plans of slowing down in her running career, especially as she is set to run for track and cross country at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on scholarship.
Ward's message to those following in her footsteps:
"You can do anything that you want to do. Anything that you put your mind to, you can do. You can do anything you set your mind to, put your faith in God and his plan will work out."
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