VERO BEACH, Fla. — Paige Vasser, owner of Legacy Boxing Gym in Vero Beach, is one of the top-10 professional women in paintball — and she never played a sport until she was 21 years old.
Vasser grew up in Southeast Georgia before moving to Sebastian, where she eventually opened Legacy Boxing Gym in Vero Beach to give back to the community.
WATCH BELOW: Vero Beach gym owner wins gold with Team USA in paintball
"I grew up in Southeast Georgia near Brunswick; it's kind of the middle of nowhere, and I didn't get into sports until I was 21," Vasser said.
Her introduction to boxing came before paintball, and she embraced it fully.
"I had never really exercised before. I never did sports before doing boxing. I just thought it was kind of — pardon my wording — bada**," Vasser said.
As the gym's owner, Vasser was looking for more. Her boyfriend, who had been playing paintball for about 10 years, introduced her to the sport.
"I had never even heard of paintball before, but my boyfriend had started about 10 years before I started," Vasser said.
She took her team at Legacy for a day of paintballing and quickly fell in love with it.
"We just ended up loving it on the weekends as something that kept us busy," Vasser said.
What started as a weekend hobby quickly turned into something much bigger. A coach noticed Vasser playing and recruited her for his divisional team. A year later, she signed with her first women's professional team.
Her rise through the sport has been rapid. Vasser is now ranked among the top professional women in paintball, and last weekend she competed internationally at an event in France.
"I actually got to play internationally last weekend. We flew into Paris, and we had an event in France," Vasser said.
The event was held at the site of the United Paintball Federation, where Vasser and Team USA won gold in one of the largest events in the sport.
"I got to play with girls that I never get to play with before, which is an awesome experience. They're amazing, and it was a lot of fun," Vasser said.
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