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Kira Brazinski shouts encouragement to her best friend Allison Flickinger during the Broncs' meet against Lander in early October. When it's her turn to swim, Brazinski removes her artificial limb. NEWS&GUIDE PHOTO / ASHLEY WILKERSON

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Eight-year-old children aren’t supposed to make life-changing decisions. Kira Brazinski knows differently.

The 16-year-old made a decision that would alter her life forever during the third grade. She decided to have her left leg amputated.

“She came up to me and said, ‘Mom, I want my foot cut off, and I want it as soon as possible’” Kathie Brazinski said.

Kira Brazinski was born with a rare, nonhereditary birth defect called proximal femoral focal deficiency. It’s characterized by the shortening of a leg bone, typically the femur, and the absence of a kneecap.

John and Kathie Brazinski gave their daughter the choice to live with the shortened leg or have it amputated and get a prosthetic leg.

There is no question she made the right decision. Now a junior at Jackson Hole High School, Kira Brazinski is an emerging contributor for the Bronc swim team, which will compete for the state championship this weekend in Gillette.

With just one leg, she swims at an obvious disadvantage but compensates with a strong upper body and determination that has inspired her teammates, coaches and opponents.

“She just has an awesome attitude,” coach Debbie Iobst said. “If you could coach a whole team of Kiras, it would just be great. She’s truly been an inspiration.”

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Alongside Becky Griest and Sammy Pardee, Kira cheers on her teammates during a swim meet. NEWS&GUIDE PHOTO / ASHLEY WILKERSON

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John and Kathie Brazinski had no warning their daughter would be born with a partial left leg.

“When she was born, it was a total shock,” Kathie Brazinski said. “There’s nothing that can prepare you for that. But right after the day she was born and I found out what she had, I researched, researched, researched.”

Brazinski and her husband decided that ultimately their child should make the choice about what to do about her leg.

“She was a bright girl,” Brazinski said. “I realized early on that she knew what we were talking about.”

Kira Brazinski was always self- aware. At the age of 2, she asked her mother when her leg was going to grow out.

“It doesn’t,” her mother told her. “Your leg is different.”

Brazinski’s options were simple. She could leave the leg as is, undergo a rotationplasty – a procedure in which the limb could be salvaged by surgically transforming the ankle into a knee joint – or have the leg amputated and live with a prosthetic limb.

At first, Brazinski was hesitant to have her leg amputated.

“I remember thinking I wasn’t going to do anything with it,” she said. “I was scared.”

One day, however, she changed her mind. Her thinking was pretty logical, actually. At least for a preteen.

“I remember I just wanted to be able to wear cool jeans,” she said.

Her parents gained strength through their daughter’s courage.

“She went into the operating room with a smile on her face,” Kathie Brazinski said. “What 8-year-old does that?”

Looking back, Brazinski is proud her daughter made the right decision. She said many patients who have the rotationplasty experience problems later in life.

“Ultimately, she made the right choice,” Brazinski said. “This was a much simpler choice. Ultimately, in the early parts of her life, she was going to live with this. I wasn’t going to make the decision for her.”

Kira Brazinski wasn’t done impressing. She stunned her doctors by learning to walk with a prosthetic leg faster than expected.

“She’s quite the athlete,” her mother said. “That helps. She’s so athletic it helps her.”

Still, it would be six more years before Brazinski would take that athleticism to the pool.


Sharks in the water

Her swim lessons were going well at the Teton County/Jackson Recreation Center. She was just 4 at the time but comfortable in the water.

However, a harmless prank pulled by her older brother, Cole, scared her out of the water. The 9-year-old told his 4-year-old sister there were sharks in the pool. Naturally, the impressionable little girl believed him.

“I was terrified of the big pool,” she said. “I really thought there were sharks in the water.”

So, Brazinski suddenly preferred being out of the water. She began skiing at age of 3 – with one ski. Very soon she was out-skiing her parents.

“She’s a better skier than I am,” Kathie Brazinski said. “She couldn’t snowplow, because she was skiing on one leg. So right from the get-go, she learned her edges.”

Kira Brazinski was so comfortable skiing on one leg that she was featured in the 2007 PBS documentary Heroes of the Slope, a ski film produced to raise  awareness of the athletic abilities of disabled persons.

The film was shown to her classmates at Jackson Hole High School.

“Everyone was like, ‘you were so good,’” Brazinski said. “I was like, ‘no, I wasn’t.’ It was still pretty cool to be in it.”

However, she hasn’t seen as much of the slopes lately. She recently developed plantar fasciitus, an inflammatory condition on the arch of the foot caused by overuse. That forced her to cut back on skiing.

Fortunately, two influential people in her life would help her fall in love with a new sport.

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Kira Brazinski, right, and Marlow Maguire swim 200's to test their endurance during practice at the Rec Center. Brazinski compensates for her missing leg with determination and upper-body strength. NEWS&GUIDE PHOTO / ASHLEY WILKERSON

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Jumping into the pool

Jim Jenkins has a simple philosophy: He invites every student to come out for the Jackson Hole High School swim team. Brazinski was no exception.

Jenkins, the Broncs assistant coach, had already formed a bond with Brazinski. He was her physical education teacher her freshman year.

The summer before Brazinski’s sophomore year, Jenkins tried to talk her into joining the team. Allison Flickinger joined the campaign.

Flickinger was also a member of the swim team and Brazinski’s best friend.

“I wasn’t going to join a sport,” Brazinski said. “But Allison did it. And Mr. Jenkins wanted me to do it.”

As it turns out, that was enough.

“The first day I got into the pool,” she said, “it felt so good.”

Brazinski just completed her second season on the swim team. She did not qualify for state but showed marked improvement throughout the season, improving her time in the 100 butterfly from 1 minute, 50.8 seconds to 1:38.40. Along the way, she has  inspired opponents throughout the state.

“At the swim meets, they are like, ‘that’s cool that you are swimming,’” she said. “Everyone supports me. They wish me luck and stuff. That’s really cool.”

Even her coaches are moved by her presence on the team.

“She’s an inspiration to me,” Jenkins said. “Seeing her out here every single day, doing everything, that’s one of the reasons I come to practice.”

Brazinski plans on swimming for the local club team, the Sting Rays, this winter in hopes of improving her skills for next season.

Jenkins said he has been impressed by her upper-body strength and her work ethic.

“She’s a hard worker. She’ll try anything,” he said. “And she has a positive attitude about everything. I’ve never heard her say no.

Her teammates have found her to be a source of motivation, too.

“She definitely gives a positive image of, ‘don’t give up,’” teammate Cummings Rork said. “Just because you’re at a disadvantage, doesn’t mean you can’t do something.”