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 Before
Nick Ackerman was helping the patients of Iowa-based American
Prosthetics and Orthotics, he was taking down opponents on
the wrestling mats of Simpson College, but he wasn’t
just any other wrestler. Nick won the 2001 NCAA Division III
Wrestling Championship at 174 pounds. He was the first and
only athlete to become a national champion without the use
of his legs. It was one of the most impressive sports accomplishments
of 2001.
In connection with its centennial celebration,
the NCAA named Nick’s wrestling championship one of
its “25 Defining Moments in NCAA History.” ESPN
Classic and ESPNU are airing “Moments” throughout
the months of January, March, and September. Each moment is
a 30-second vignette that highlights the most exciting, important
and memorable events in the NCAA’s history. The vignettes
began airing January 2 on ESPN Classic and ESPNU.
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| Sarah
Will, four-time Paralympian from Rockland County, N.Y.,
met with Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) March 9 to help
raise awareness about the U.S. Paralympic Spirit Awards
delivered by DHL. Will was in Washington, D.C., as part
of the DHL U.S. Paralympic Speaker Series, speaking at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center to newly disabled veterans. |
Wheelchair basketball star Edy Lopez, Amityville,
N.Y., played in the 2006 NBA/National Wheelchair Basketball
Association All-Star Classic Feb. 16 in Houston.
The game at the George R. Brown Con-vention
Center took place in conjunction with the NBA’s 2006
All-Star Game.
As a member of the Association, Lopez began
playing wheelchair basketball in 1989, and competed in the
inaugural NBA/NWBA All-Star Game in 1998 in New York City.
He is a 14-time Eastern Wheelchair Basketball Conference All-Star
and a 10-time conference MVP.
Lopez averages 25 points, 10 rebounds, and
nine assists per game. “He is a fierce competitor. He
is one of the top competitors in the country,” said
Lopez’s coach, John Hamre.
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| Colorado
Springs, Colo. – The U.S. Olympic Committee named 14-year-old
Jessica Long the Athlete of the Month for January 2006. A
bilateral below-the-knee amputee since she was 18 months old,
Long is one of the youngest members of the U.S. Paralympic
Swimming Team. She won three gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic
Games in Athens, and set 17 new records at the U.S. Paralympic
Open in December 2005: two world, seven Pan-American, and
eight American records.
She also set two world records at the 2006
BlazeSports Georgia Open Swimming Competition. She swam the
women’s SM8 200 individual medley in 2:51:36, which
lowered her own world mark set in December 2005 in Minneapolis.
Her second world record came in the SB7 women’s 100
breaststroke, where she finished in 1:32:52. Both swims also
set new American and International Paralympic Committee swimming
Pan-American records.
Long also was nominated as 2005 Female
Paralympian of the Year. Her next venture is the Extremity
Games in Florida this July where she will compete in rock
climbing.
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