Katherine Beattie is shredding the wheelchair motocross scene, finishing eighth overall in her first WCMX World Championships, held in April in Grand Prairie, Texas. Also, Beattie, who has CP, is the first woman in the world to land a backflip in a wheelchair.

The La Cañada Flintridge, Calif., woman spent her childhood skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding until a surgery to lengthen her hamstrings, intended to make it easier for her to walk, left her muscles weak. “I didn’t have the balance or stamina to participate in those sports anymore,” says Beattie, 29.

While in college, she saw a picture of a wheelchair user dropping into a quarter pipe. “I knew one day, when I was able to get my own wheelchair, that was something I would do,” she says. Two years ago, Beattie began using a Box wheelchair daily to conserve her energy and it wasn’t long before she headed to the skate park.

Riding for Team Box, Beattie has quickly risen to become one of the top women in the sport and the first American woman invited to the second WCMX World Championships. Athletes were judged on how consistently they stayed on their wheels, creativity and amplitude.

“I was able to do two really clean runs in the finals and actually ended up in eighth place overall,” says Beattie. “I was so happy to have placed that high and to be top 10 in the world and the number one girl overall.”

As thrilled as Beattie was with her performance in Texas, she wants to see her sport on the international stage. “I think everybody that rides WCMX would love to see it one day in the X Games alongside skateboarding, BMX, Motocross and all the other sports,” she says.

Here’s the YouTube clip of Beattie’s backflip: