By Marvin Olberding, U.S. Olympic Committee, Paralympic Division
Although the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing are still nearly a year away,
there are already plenty of storylines to follow as we move closer to next
year’s competition, including a new sport and a new group of athletes looking to bring home gold for the USA.
Rowing will make its debut as a medal sport in 2008 in four classes – the men’s and women’s single sculls, the trunk-arms mixed double sculls and the legs-trunk-arms mixed four with coxswain - and the U.S. could be in a strong position to take some of those first historic medals.
At the 2006 FISA World Championships in Eton, England, Scott Brown (Bryn Mawr, Pa.) and Angela Madsen (Long Beach, Calif.) further established their dominance in the double sculls category, winning their fourth consecutive world title. In addition, the U.S. won two silver medals in the single sculls races, courtesy of Ron Harvey (Long Beach, Calif.) and Patty Rollison (Reno, Nev.).
The members of the 2008 U.S. Paralympic Rowing Team will be part of a roster of approximately 300 U.S. athletes competing in Beijing, but they won’t be the only new element on the squad. Also expected to compete at the Paralympic Games will be Kortney Clemons (powerlifting, University Park, Pa.), Josh Olson (shooting, Ft. Benning, Ga.) and Scott Winkler (track and field, Grovetown, Ga.), all of whom are members of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Paralympic Military Program.
Clemons, in his first international competition, finished 13th in the men’s 75 kg weight class at the 2006 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Powerlifting World Championships in Busan, Korea. An above-the-knee amputee who was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in February of 2005 while serving as a medic in Iraq, Clemons participated in the inaugural Paralympic Military Sports Camp in 2005.
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Relay team Danny Andrews, Donald Kosakowski, Marlon Shirley,
and Brian Frasure won gold at last years' World Campionships. |
Olson, the first Paralympic athlete to become a member of the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program, emerged from a field of 61 athletes to finish eighth in the men's R6 50m Prone Smallbore event at the 2006 IPC Shooting World Championships in Sargans, Switzerland. He was struck in the right leg by a rocket-propelled grenade while on patrol in Iraq in 2003, resulting in amputation above the knee and a hip disarticulation. Like Clemons, Olson was a member of the first Military Sports Camp.
Winkler, arguably, has made the biggest splash of any athlete from the program thus far. He set a world record in the men’s F54 Shot Put at the 2007 U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in Atlanta, just one year after being introduced to the shot and discus at the 2006 Paralympic Military Sports Camp in Colorado Springs, Colo. Winkler was paralyzed after falling from an ammo truck in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2003.
Approximately 4,000 athletes from 150 countries are expected to compete in Beijing, where the U.S. will look to improve from their fourth-place showing in the overall medal count at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.
Here’s a quick look at some of the U.S. athletes who could be major players in Beijing:
Archery
Two-time world champion and two-time Paralympic bronze medalist Jeff Fabry (Tulare, Calif.) will look to add a third world title this October at the 2007 IPC Archery World Championships in Gonju City, Korea. During the qualifying round at the 2005 World Championships, he broke world records from all four distances and, subsequently, overall score. Fabry will lead a growing roster of elite archers into Beijing.
Cycling
Alejandro Albor (Elk Grove, Calif.) took the silver medal in Athens in the men’s Road Race. At last year’s World Championships, he blew the field away in the Road Race, earning gold after putting one minute and 24 seconds (1:24) between him and his nearest competitor. In Beijing, he’ll look to produce similar results.
Swimming
Jessica Long (Baltimore, Md.) may have made the biggest headlines at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa, winning nine gold medals in nine events. But, if you look closer, you’ll find that the entire U.S. team is turning into a force. The U.S. won the overall medal count for the first time at a World Championships or Paralympic Games, edging second-place Great Britain by five medals.
As for the “Golden Girl of Athens,” Erin Popovich (Silverbow, Mont.), she hasn’t disappeared. The seven-time Paralympic gold medalist in 2004 won eight medals (six gold, two silver) in Durban.
Track & Field
An array of young stars is just part of a track & field squad full of world record holders and world champions. Jessica Galli (Savoy, Ill.), in the span of one month (June 2007), eliminated Great Britain’s legendary Tanni Grey-Thompson from the record books in the T53 200, 400 and 800m. Josh George (Champaign, Ill.) won all four of his individual events – the T53 100, 200, 400 and 800m – at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships in Assen, The Netherlands.
Athletes training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., continue to put up stellar performances, as well. April Holmes (Somerdale, N.J.) holds world records in the women’s T44 100, 200 and 400m. Two-time Paralympic 100m champion Marlon Shirley (Tremonton, Utah) has bounced back from knee surgery and is running as fast as ever. Jeff Skiba (Issaquah, Wash.) continues to push his record in the men’s high jump closer to seven feet, and Casey Tibbs (San Diego, Calif.) won gold in the men’s pentathlon in Assen.
Wheelchair Basketball
The U.S. Paralympics Men’s and Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Teams each won silver medals at the 2006 World Championships, with each squad falling to Canada in the gold medal game. Each team should return most of its core players as Beijing approaches.
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| Will Groulx, member of the rugby team. |
Wheelchair Rugby
Since winning bronze at the 2004 Paralympic Games, the U.S. Paralympics Wheelchair Rugby Team has been working to return to the top of the mountain. In 2006, they completed the journey, going undefeated on their way to a gold medal at the 2006 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships. Now, the goal for this deep and experienced team is to stay on top.
Wheelchair Tennis
The 2004 gold medal-winning quad doubles team of Nick Taylor (Wichita, Kan.) and David Wagner (Hillsboro, Ore.) has continued to play excellent tennis ever since. The duo recently helped lead the U.S. to a third consecutive Invacare World Team Cup title in the quad division.
U.S. Paralympics, a division of the United States Olympic Committee, will also bring student-athletes with physical disabilities, ages 12-18, and coaches to Beijing as part of the Paralympic Academy program. More information about the program will be available at www.usparalympics.org.
| Oct. 3-14: |
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U.S. Paralympic Sailing Trials, Newport, R.I. |
| Nov. 9-10: |
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Paralympic Games Team Trials – Men’s Sitting Volleyball, Edmond, Okla. |
| Dec. 13-16: |
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Paralympic Games Team Trials – Wheelchair Rugby, Birmingham, Ala. |
| Feb. 23 – March 1, 2008: |
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Paralympic Games Team Trials – Women’s Sitting Volleyball, Edmond, Okla. |
| April 3-5: |
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U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials, Minneapolis, Minn. |
| April 11-13: |
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Paralympic Games Team Trials – Men’s Wheelchair Basketball, Colorado Springs, Colo. |
| April 11-13: |
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Paralympic Games Team Trials – Women’s Wheelchair Basketball, Birmingham, Ala. |
| June 28-29: |
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U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships and Paralympic Trials, Atlanta, Ga. |
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Aerial Gilbert is blind, but she hasn’t lost her vision when it comes to promoting the sport of rowing and seeing it elevated to Paralympic status.
“When I first got involved in adaptive rowing, the ultimate goal was to get rowing included in the Paralympic Games,” Gilbert said. “In my mind, this can be a great impetus for boathouses across the country to open their doors to rowers with disabilities.”
The journey began as adaptive rowers were invited for the first time to the 2002 World Championships in Seville, Spain. Unlike most adaptive sports, the adaptive rowing team competes in the non-adaptive World Championships. Gilbert became involved after she read a Web site announcement asking for adaptive rowers to participate.
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| Aerial Gilbert at the 2006 World Rowing Championships in Eton, England. |
“I contacted Isabel Bohn, (Pennsylvania Center for Adaptive Sports) who was in charge of the program, and learned that they were hoping it would lead to rowing being accepted as an official Paralympic sport. If this were to happen, it would open the doors to boathouses around the country to people with disabilities so they could experience the same kind of joy of the sport that I get from it.”
But at the 2002 World Championships, the participants faced some challenges non-adaptive rowers did not have to worry about.
“We had to pay our own way, were given a boat that hadn’t been used since the 1976 Olympics, were housed in a separate hotel (which was not wheelchair accessible) from the rest of the U.S. team, and felt like we didn’t belong on the world arena,” Gilbert said. “We turned a few heads navigating the venue with wheelchairs, prosthetic legs, and canes, and when we came home with a bronze medal in the coxed 4 (four-person scull) and gold in the double (two-person scull), we altered the course of adaptive rowing for the U.S. Every year since, the number of countries participating and the level of competition has increased.
“It was challenging, but we looked at it as an opportunity to make rowing more visible to people with disabilities,” she said.
Finally, in May of 2005, rowing was added as an official Paralympic sport, and will be included for the first time in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.
“My goal is to continue to participate on the U.S. Nationals Team and to row in the first boat to represent the U.S. in the Paralympics,” Gilbert said.
She and her U.S. National Adaptive Rowing teammates in the LTA4+ class (legs, torso, arms, capability) are very close to their goal. Gilbert, Jesse Karmazin, Jamie Dean and Tracy Lee Tackett qualified for the World Championships in Munich (Aug. 28-Sept.3) at the selection camp held at St. Joseph’s University Boathouse in Philadelphia in early June. If they can place in the top eight of the rowing teams in Munich, their journey to Beijing is assured. If not, they have another shot in May 2008 at the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta.
When Gilbert joined the adaptive team in 2002, she had already been rowing for more than 25 years beginning with her college team and now as a member of the Marin Rowing Association in Greenbrae, Calif. She is the only blind rower in a boathouse of more than 400 members.
“I never thought of myself as an adaptive rower, because I’ve always competed on an equal playing field with non-disabled rowers,” she said.
“Rowing is more tactile than visual,” she said. “I feel the movement and swing of the boat, and I hear the sound of the oarlocks. A combination of that feel and the sound is what gets me there.”
Gilbert’s six days a week workout routine also includes two days of spinning and three days of weight training, including dead lift squats, core workouts, back and full-body strength training. She aims for 100 reps or better. That is in addition to rowing with the Marin Advanced Masters Women’s program.
“I am a full member of the team, competing at the same level and with the same expectations,” she said. “I feel I’m at my peak and I’m staying there.”
Gilbert knows she faces some challenges in competing against rowers often half her age.
“I will do everything I possibly can to make it. When you are 53 and competing against 20 year olds, it’s harder. But I’ve competed in numerous races, I know how to row effectively with three other people, and I know the psychology of racing. I’ll use every possible visualization I can,” she said.
“The real key to a championship team is having four rowers blend with each other, and knowing how each moves the boat, and attaining a boat speed and stroke rate that is most efficient.”
Gilbert is the only team member who lives on the West Coast, but she doesn’t see that as a disadvantage.
“We are four athletes that have full time jobs or are full time students. So it’s difficult to get everybody to train together, but our coach, Karen Lewis, does a terrific job with drills and techniques to get us in sync when we come together. “As athletes we come from all over the country, train hard, and share the common experience of living with a disability. Like the athletes competing to be on the regular national team, we go through selection camp and work hard to make the team. When we come together to prepare for Worlds, we share the added dimension of adapting because of our individual disabilities and gender in one boat. As women, we are smaller than the men, and we have to learn to blend together to make the boat move efficiently. As athletes with different disabilities, we have boat balance challenges from missing limbs and rowing with prosthetic legs or without.”
Gilbert’s interest in rowing began when she was a freshman at Mills College (Oakland, Calif.). “I was watching the (1976) Olympics and discovered rowing. I knew immediately that was the sport for me,” Gilbert said. “I rowed for Mills College and loved the teamwork, dedication, strength and stamina that the sport demanded.”
After becoming a registered nurse, she continued rowing for her own enjoyment in San Francisco Bay.
But in 1988, her world changed in an instant after using eye drops that were tampered with and contained lye. Following that horrific event, Gilbert said she was despondent and felt incompetent at everything she attempted.
“I suddenly found myself unable to do the simplest task, like walking through my house, finding my clothes, and getting toothpaste on my toothbrush. My life as I knew it was over, and for the next six months I didn’t do anything except exist in the most fundamental way,” she said.
Then a friend, who also was a rower, insisted Gilbert row with her in a double.
After a few shaky strokes, her confidence returned, and she knew she had not lost her ability to row.
“For the first time in six months, I was moving comfortably through space and experiencing the joy of the sport,” she said. “That was a gift that created a pivotal moment of change that allowed me to create a whole new life for myself.
“Over the next couple of years I mastered techniques that would allow me to live a normal life without sight,” she said. “I attended the Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, Calif., where I learned independent mobility with a cane, reading and writing in Braille, how to cook and live independently. I attended Guide Dogs for the Blind, where I got my first guide dog, Webster, a yellow Labrador retriever. On my first walk with Webster I got an inkling that I could walk as fast as everyone else and I could move without evaluating every step I took.”
Through her friends that also enjoyed rowing, Gilbert was able to train on a regular basis, and began competing in local regattas. In 1999, 2000, and 2001 she and her rowing partner navigated the 33-mile open-water crossing from Catalina Island to Marina Del Rey.
In addition to being a four-time adaptive national team member, and winner of a bronze in 2002 FISA World Championships, Gilbert also has two gold medals in non-adaptive events at the 2005 World Masters Games.
In 2002 Gilbert and her guide dog at the time, Deanne, were honored to be chosen as Olympic Torchbearers for the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Torch Relay. She is a member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the Northern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. When she isn’t rowing, Gilbert is the outreach manager of Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, Calif. She and her husband, Larry Lobel, and guide dog, Hedda, reside in Petaluma, Calif.
“Rowing has been a metaphor for the interdependence I experience that allows me to lead a full life,” Gilbert said.
“I credit my family, friends, rowing partners, and my current guide dog, Hedda, with facilitating things to make my dreams come true. When I made the first team that went to Seville in 2002, I then set for myself the long-term goal of making the first adaptive team that will go to the Paralympics to represent the U.S. in Beijing in 2008.
“Five years ago, that seemed like a long time, but now there are only 12 months to go.”
For more information on rowing, contact Isabel Bohn at the Pennsylvania Center for Adaptive Sports, (215) 765-5118, or e-mail pacenter@aol.com. |
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Photo courtesy of U.S. Paralympics |
Scott Winkler, a disabled veteran who, less than a year ago, had never before tried putting the shot or throwing discus, has discovered the pleasure of being able to surprise himself. For Winkler, 34, the result of trying something new is a world record. Now, he’s going to the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing – the first severely injured veteran of the war in Iraq to do so. His goal from the start, when he discovered he could throw, was to make it to the Paralympics.
“I fought for my country,” he says. “Now I want to win for it.”
The world didn’t have to wait for the Paralympics in order to notice Winkler’s talent. This year, he’s competed in numerous track and field championships, took national records, and set the shot put world record for the F54 classification. He set his current record of just over 10 meters on the morning of Sunday, July 1, at the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field National Championships in Marietta, Ga.
Winkler has been athletic since childhood. Born in Indiana and raised in Pittsburgh, he ran track through middle and high school, participating in sprints, relays, and long jump. He also was a hockey player and enjoyed hunting, fishing, and just being outdoors.
Following high school, Winkler became a certified carpenter, but he says, “I wanted to try different things with my life.”
At age 21, Winkler joined the army, and after completing his basic training in South Carolina, he served his country as a cook stationed in Korea.
After two years back in civilian life, Winkler rejoined the military at Ft. Stewart, Ga., and when the U.S. entered Iraq in 2003, he was sent to Tikrit. It was here, working as a driver, that he took a horrific fall from the back of a truck carrying ammunition, suffering a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the chest down.
A lot of depression followed his injury, and several years of physical therapy and rehabilitation. It was through the Southeastern Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) that he began to find outlets near his home in Grovetown, Ga.
“Everybody needs to have an outlet in life,” he says.
For Winkler, it started with fishing and two second-place finishes in bass tournaments. Then, at the invitation of friends, he began playing wheelchair basketball, which he still enjoys as a workout.
 It was in 2006 at the military summit at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado that he discovered the field events, and the possibility of making it to the U.S. Paralympics, where he could, again, represent our country.
In throwing clinics, Winkler met five-time Paralympian Gabe Deleon, a man who Winkler says is his biggest inspiration. Through Deleon’s mentoring, Winkler discovered his natural abilities, as well as a passion to work with and coach children. “Don’t give up in life!” is the message he wants to share with them the most.
Because it’s been less than a year since he began learning discus and shot put, he says with humor, “All I do is train.” He spends many straight hours throwing, lifting, and playing basketball, and he says, “I’m trying to enjoy life as much as I can.”
Even with his strength and determination, Winkler has been through dark times. Now that he’s found the benefits of sports and recreation, his passion is to help others, to show them the outlets that are available to them. One of the ways Winkler helps others is as a mentor in the DS/USA Youth Sports Mentoring Program.
“It’s not the end of the world,” Winkler says. “If you believe, you can achieve. That’s my motto now. If you believe, you can achieve anything that you want to do in life.”
As a PVA hospital chairman, Winkler works with recreational therapists to set up outings such as bowling, camping, bingo, and pizza parties for other disabled veterans. He wants to “show the world, hey, we’re still here. We’re still alive. There’s nothing we can’t do.”
Winkler believes that everyone has hidden talents, that everyone should try new things to discover what they’re capable of, whether it’s a sport or another type of recreation.
“If I can inspire one person out of a million that’s disabled to try recreation or sports… well, that is my goal for the future,” Winkler says.
Lindsay Tresemer is a writer based in Milwaukee, Wis. |
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