Less than four years before making her Winter Paralympics debut, Rae Anderson stepped away from elite sport altogether.

As a 19-year-old, Anderson finished fifth in javelin and eighth in discus at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, before being identified as a winter sports prospect a year later.

But in 2018 she took a different turn, and it proved to be the making of her.

"The Commonwealth Games doesn't cater for all summer sports and after being talent-identified in 2017 for alpine skiing I believed I didn't have the financial support to be able to pursue this sport to this level," Anderson said.

"I did have 2018 off and I spent a semester over in Indonesia studying cultural studies and the Indonesian language. That enforced break really just opened my eyes to the possibilities outside of sport.

"We put a lot of focus on athletes to pursue at the highest level and then that becomes their life, especially for athletes like myself who have only known professional or elite sport since the age of 13.

"But certainly [after] my experiences in Indonesia and in the real world and having hobbies that aren't skiing, that aren't athletics, I'm excited for life after sport and what that can look like."

Anderson was happy outside the elite sport bubble, until "an insane chance meeting" drew her back inside.

In 2019, Anderson was on a ski trip with her family, wearing an Australian team jacket belonging to 2014 and 2018 Winter Paralympian Tori Prendergast.

It prompted a chat with an Australian national team coach about her journey.

"He came back to me the next day and said, 'I've got you a job, I've got you accommodation in Jindabyne and I've got you on a coaching program'," Anderson said.

All of a sudden, Anderson started her rapid rise in para-alpine skiing, culminating in becoming Australia's seventh athlete to compete at both Summer and Winter Paralympics.

Returning to sport has also proved mentally empowering for Anderson, who was born with left hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

"I grew up in hospital a lot with surgeries just to be even able to walk, let alone run and ski," she said.

Anderson is realistic about her prospects in Beijing, where she will tackle giant slalom on Friday and slalom on Sunday, but is looking long-term.

"You don't want to just come here and be a participant, you want to do well and reach for medals and goals and everything," she said.

"But certainly this Games for me is going to be a bit of a learning experience, learning what it's like to compete at this level, in this sort of bubble."

AAP