Overcoming Disabilties Team Room

[Kona2]

Now that is one cool story. Thanks for posting it, Ronnie! Tatsiana will have many cheering for her progress...and I think we will cheer loudest! Whoop, whoop and hooyah!

[brotherjim]

Gail Morning

Hometown: Warrington, Pennsylvania
INAS-FID Sports: Swimming, Indoor Rowing
Other Sports: Powerlifting, Tennis
Coach: Karen Fisher

Gail ranked among the top 25 in several swimming events at 2009 Global Games World Championships including 16th place finishes in the long course 200m Freestyle and 800m Freestyle.

She also competed in the demonstration indoor rowing competition at Global Games, and placed 12th among women athletes from all sports on a 1,000m ergometer test.

Results Highlights:

2010 GTAC Disability Meet Sanctioned by US Paralympics
• Events and times coming soon.

2009 INAS-FID Global Games, Czech Republic
• Member US Swim Team, Swim events and times coming soon
• Participant in 2009 Indoor Rowing Demonstration:

[brotherjim]

Richard Mazur


Home State: Ohio
Sport: Swimming
Team: Buckeye Swim Club
Coach: Laurie Karr

Richard is one of a small number of US athletes who swam in the S14 Paralympic Class prior to its suspension by the IPC in 2000. By the time he was 13 he held several American records and world rankings. Fast forward a decade later — with the class for intellectual disability re-included — and Richard has picked up where he left off, working toward his renewed dream of making the US Paralympic Swim Team for the London 2012 Games.


Recent Events:
•December 2011 CanAm IPC/US Paralympic Swim Meet, CA
•May 2012 GTAC IPC/US Paralympic Swim Meet, OH

BIO

How did you get started in your sport?
My mother who was a competitive swimmer herself

Tell us about your past athletic and other major accomplishments?
•8 IPC Long Course American Records (Prior to the ban on the S14 Paralympic Class in 2000)
•11 IPC Short Course American Records, and
•2 IPC World Rankings for USA Swimming Swimmers with Disabilities. (records abolished by IPC around 2004/2005)
•Appeared on the USA Swimming/OHIO Swimming publicity poster along with two time Olympian Medalist Nat Dusing, and Gold & Bronze Medalist Paralympian Beth Riggle
•Swam for DCHS Varsity Swim Team from 2002-2005.
•Team Manager of the Rocks, Dublin Coffman Varsity Hockey Team
•Dropped the opening puck at a Cleveland Lumber Jacks game back in 1995 at the age of 9
•Graduated Cum Laude in his IEP from Dublin Coffman High School


What places have you traveled to for competition?
•USA Swimming Disability Championships
•1998, 1999, 2003 Minneapolis several times

•2000 Indianapolis several times

•2002 Seattle

•2001 Phoenix

•2002 Swam ZONES in 2002 in Wichita, Kansas

Describe your current training regimen?
17+ hours per week swimming and dryland training
+one-on-one technique training in the morning
+double workouts in summer
Schedule: Monday 6-9pm, Tues/Wed/Thur 4-7pm, Sat 8-10:30am, Sun 3:45-6pm

What is your favorite part of training?
Being in the water
Being with other swimmers
Like working with my arms

What do you find hardest about training?
Keeping my head back in the water in backstroke

What are your 2012 goals and future athletic aspirations?
Making the Paralympic swim team
Going to London 2012 and Paralymics in 2016 and more

What is your favorite sports movie?
Miracle on Ice

What is your favorite pre-race meal or ritual?
Bagel, bananas, apples and juice

This just in from Paralympic Swimming Trials. Richard Mazur just set a new American record in the 100 backstroke, 1:22.84. He broke his own record by more than 2 seconds!

[brotherjim]

By United States Tennis Association | Jun 18, 2012, 4:00 PM ET

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – The United States Tennis Association (USTA) and U.S. National Wheelchair Tennis Team Coach Dan James today announced the nine players who will represent the United States in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Sept. 1-8.

The U.S. will be one of 30 countries represented by the 112 wheelchair tennis competitors from around the world, vying for gold in the men’s, women’s and quad events. The competition will take place at Eton Manor, a newly-built 10,500 seat venue built specifically for wheelchair tennis located in London’s Olympic Park.

“The USTA is the national governing body for Paralympic Tennis and is proud of the wheelchair tennis athletes who will represent the United States at this year’s Paralympic Games,” said Jon Vegosen, USTA Chairman of the Board and President. “Their ability to train their minds and bodies in order to earn the title ‘Paralympian’ is illustrative of their commitment and dedication to the sport of tennis. Watching them compete will be an honor.”

The men’s team will be led by Stephen Welch (Southlake, Texas), Jon Rydberg (Oakdale, Minn.), Steve Baldwin (San Diego, Calif.), and Noah Yablong (Tucson, Ariz.).

The women’s team will feature Emmy Kaiser (Ft. Mitchell, Ky.), and Mackenzie Soldan (Louisville, Ky.).

The quad team, led by two-time doubles gold medalists David Wagner (San Diego, Calif.), and Nick Taylor (Wichita, Kan.), will also include first-time Paralympian Bryan Barten (Tucson, Ariz.). Wagner, who is currently world No.1 in both singles and doubles, will be competing for his first gold medal in men’s quad singles at the Paralympics.

Direct entries are based on ITF World Rankings from May 21, 2012. Similar to the wildcard rule at other tennis tournaments, the U.S. Wheelchair Tennis Team has been granted a Bipartite by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Bipartite slots allow the Paralympic event to allocate additional slots to countries competing in the events. For the first time, Baldwin and Yablong was granted a Bipartite to compete on the men’s team.

Coach James, of St. Paul, Minn., will be assisted at this year’s Paralympics by assistant coach Jason Harnett of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., as well as team leader David Schobel of Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

This year’s Paralympic Games marks the sixth time wheelchair tennis will be part of the competition, and the third time the quad division will be included. The quad team of Wagner and Taylor won consecutive gold medals in doubles at the 2008 Games in Beijing, China and 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

[brotherjim]

Wednesday's wisdom: "A skier going 70 miles per hour down a hill, who is blind, isn't disabled. They're super-abled." – Aimee Mullins, Chef de Mission of Team USA for the London 2012 Paralympic Games

[brotherjim]

Oh joy, oh joy, 6 month MRI scan for MS and stroke changes this afternoon. Love when the doc says you should have died already. I know rowing and exercising has helped me so much. Plus the gallon of ice cream nightly

[ronnie1]

Good luck Jimmy, I know you will be fine. Drs. can be uncaring some times. Keep rowing, don't give up EVER! Eat that ice cream boy
Ronnie

[Drivetofast]

GOOD LUCK JIM

[brotherjim]

Thanks Richard and Ronnie, the test went ok. I am pumped full of dye. Will know something in a week I think.

[Kona2]

Wondered if anyone had heard from Elton? Hope all is well.

[ronnie1]

Wondered if anyone had heard from Elton? Hope all is well.

I heard from him a week ago. He is in clinic having some medical procedures for his neurological/muscular disorder.
Ronnie

[Kona2]

Thanks, Ronnie! We'll have to send positrons his way!

[brotherjim]

Copied from Athletes Without Limits


Bruce Worley


Hometown: Columbia, Maryland
INAS Sports: Track and Field, Rowing
Teams: Athletes Without Limits/DC Strokes Rowing Team

Bruce Worley, 25, has been running since the age of 8. The word that best describes him is “persistence,” a philosophy which he has upheld all his life. 
While still in elementary school, Bruce began running as part of a junior striders’ program. Although not the fastest runner, he kept up his practice, and grew to become an elite long-distance runner.

Bruce has won several age group awards for running road races, and at age 19 won a medal for running a 16.2 mile event. While a junior in high school, he reached his goal of completing a marathon (26.2 miles.) He continues to run and compete in local races along with his brother Mark, also an athlete.

Since high school, Bruce has participated in Special Olympics Track, Cross-Country, and Basketball and has won many Special Olympics medals at the county and state levels. Last year Bruce was chosen to lead the state Special Olympics torch delegation.

In addition to running year-round, Bruce recently joined the Athletes Without Limits/DC Strokes Rowing Team, which will race and train from April-Nov 2011. Bruce works full time at the county hospital where he operates floor and carpet-cleaning equipment, a job which he has held now for over 3 years.

Competition Highlights
•2012 C.R.A.S.H.-B. Indoor Rowing Sprints Silver Medal in Men’s Intellectually Disabled 1,000m
•Member of 2011 Global Games Team in 10,000m run and 500m indoor rowing.
•Clydes 10K April 17, 2011 10K – 44:35

[brotherjim]

Pistorius set for long-awaited Olympic debut
By GERALD IMRAY | Associated Press GEMONA, Italy (AP) — Even when he's looking at photos of his bleeding and blistered leg stumps, Oscar Pistorius smiles.

And with his Olympic debut approaching, it's easy to understand why.

Pistorius, whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was a baby, is set to make history by running — yes, running — in the London Olympics. He will be the first amputee athlete to compete at the Olympics, and his journey has been long and rife with hurdles.

When he finally got word earlier this month that he had a place on South Africa's team — his was the last name of 125 penciled in — his first reaction was relief. Then came utter joy.

"I think I woke up the next morning with cramps in my cheeks. I was smiling in my sleep," Pistorius said during a recent interview at his training base in northeastern Italy. "You also realize very quickly ... it's the London Olympics and I need to perform. Very stressful.

"You've made the entrance to write the test, but now the test is in front of you," he said.

The test comes Aug. 4, the opening day of the 400-meter heats.

The "Blade Runner," as he is known, runs with carbon-fiber blades that often cause blisters and rub his stumps raw. Pistorius was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect, and lost his legs at 11 months. It never stopped him from playing sports — even rugby — with prosthetics.

But his running prosthetics led to years of controversy. Already a Paralympic gold medalist, Pistorius was initially banned from competing against able-bodied peers because many argued that his blades gave him an unfair advantage.

In 2008, however, the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared him to compete. Last year, he ran on South Africa's 4x400 relay team at the 2011 world championships, and though he sat out the final, he won a silver medal because he competed in the heats.

Pistorius is aware that not everyone is convinced he should compete at all.

"There will always be people who will debate, and there will always be a journalist willing to write an opinion and a certain angle to a story," Pistorius said. "There will always be someone who wants to create a name for himself, and if he's given that platform he'll take it and argue that wet is dry and green is red. There are always those types of people.

"One of the reasons for doing the tests was proving that I'm in a sport and have the ability to run due to my own talent and hard work and sacrifices, and that was important for me. Looking back at that, I'm happy that we went through it."

American LaShawn Merritt, the defending Olympic champion in the 400, looks forward to racing against the 25-year-old Pistorius.

"I've told him how much respect I have for him and the drive he has, to want to do something and take the action to work hard and get to where he wants to be," Merritt said. "The dream of his was to be able to run with the able-bodied athletes, and he knew what he had to do to make that happen, time-wise, and he worked his butt off to get it. He's here now."

Pistorius and his team have been based in Gemona for the last two European seasons after the mayor asked him if he'd consider training there to promote the town, located near the Italian Alps, just across the mountains from Austria.

Pistorius said he needed a track, ideally with the same Mondo surface as London's Olympic Stadium.

It was built for him.

Running lap after lap on his Cheetah Flex-Foot blades, Pistorius has now focused on reaching the 400 semifinals — as he did at the worlds in South Korea last year. He's also hoping to run the sub-45-second time that he and his coach, Ampie Louw, are certain he can achieve. His best time, so far, is 45.07.

"We're going to race the heat. Oscar's got no choice," Louw said.

Pistorius' track in Italy is normally sun-drenched; on this day, it's just drenched.

In pouring rain, Pistorius goes through his routine and then runs 150-meter splits. Louw whistles from the end of the home straightaway and he sets off, pounding around the bend and down the track. Water splashes out from under his blades.

Good preparation for London, his agent, Peet van Zyl, says with a smile.

So it's in Gemona that Pistorius will put the final pieces in place for his high-profile — maybe the highest profile — debut at the Olympics.

"There's a big difference in qualifying for the games and being at the top," Pistorius said. "I'm going to go there to do my best and I'll be content if I can run close to my personal best, and hopefully a personal best. I'll go with my 'A' game and take my fight with me and see how well I'll do."

On Tuesday, Pistorius finished second, in 46.56 seconds, in the 400 at his final Olympic warm-up race in Lignano, Italy, well behind Calvin Smith of the United States in 45.52.

"My time wasn't among the best. But I'm good physically and mentally," Pistorius said afterward. "I've used a lot of energy in these past few days, both in training and with the media because of my participation in the Olympics."

In his down time, he's already becoming a star.

At the small hotel where he lives, Pistorius gets a lunchtime surprise.

He smiles when the family that runs the hotel gives him a cake decorated with the five Olympic rings. He smiles when he poses for pictures with them. He even smiles when he displays pictures on his cell phone of his legs, bleeding and raw, after the recent African championships.

He'll almost certainly have a more serious expression on his face when he steps onto the track in London.

And no matter the outcome, he'll surely be smiling after finally getting the chance to achieve his Olympic dream.

[brotherjim]

By Sami K. Martin, Christian Post Contributor

June 20, 2012|11:44 am

Spencer West has spent his life defying the odds and has now reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro using only his hands. He lost his legs when he was five years old and set out to scale the mountain with the intent to raise funds for Free The Children.

"I set out to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro not only to define what's possible for me, but to inspire others to overcome obstacles and challenges of their own and to give back to communities that need help," West told MarketWatch.com. "Reaching the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro was the most mentally and physically challenging thing I have ever done, but in doing so, it reinforced the powerful message behind believing in myself and believing in others."

West was born with a genetic disorder known as sacral agenesis, which causes significant damage to the spinal cord. When he was only three, West had his legs amputated below the knees and then had them fully removed by the time he was five.

The disorder left him at a significant disadvantage, doctors said, and he would never be able to function in the world. Yet West took that news with a grain of salt and set out to prove them wrong. He trained for a full year in preparation of scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro with his best friends.

Even though only 50 percent of climbers actually succeed in their attempt to reach the summit, West and friends were able to do so in one week. He blogged throughout the climb and gained numerous followers, including celebrities Nelly Furtado and Nina Dobrev.

"This was it! The day that possible would be redefined," West posted on the final day of the trek. "It was an almighty struggle, but… WE MADE IT!"


West raised over $500,000 for Free The Children, which provides opportunities for children to help children through education. According to its website, Free the Children has "brought over 650 schools and school rooms to youth and provided clean water, health care and sanitation to one million people