Extraordinary Athletes

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GenreComprehension

Skills and StrategyText Features

Biography • Generalize

• Graphic Sources

• Summarize

• Captions

• Headings

• Glossary

By Michael Sandler

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Note: The total word count includes words in the running text and headings only. Numerals and words in chapter titles, captions, labels, diagrams, charts, graphs, sidebars, and extra features are not included.

Extraordinary Athletes

By Michael Sandler

Illustrations 4, 6 Judith Du Four Love.

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Opener Didrik Johnck/Corbis; 1 Elise Amendola/©AP Images; 9 Elise Amendola/©AP Images; 11 Gerlinde Schrijver/Corbis; 14 Andy Wong/©AP Images; 15 MBR KRT/Newscom; 17 Didrik Johnck/Johnck Media; 19 Didrik Johnck/Corbis; 21 Didrik Johnck/Johnck Media; 23 Jiri Buller/Redux Pictures.

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Extraordinary AthletesAll top athletes are amazing. Reaching

the summit of any sport takes years of training. Athletes must put in month after month of preparation and hard work. They must stay focused on their goals.

However, some athletes are even more extraordinary than others. To reach their goals, these people had to overcome special challenges—physical disabilities that made their struggles even harder.

Marathon runner Jean Driscoll, runner Oscar Pistorious, and mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer are three unique athletes who followed difficult paths to success. All had the courage to push themselves to greatness. For Jean, Oscar, or Erik, it would have been easy to quit. Yet these extraordinary athletes said “no!” The stories of these athletes and how they overcame their difficulties can inspire us all to strive for greatness.

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Jean DriscollWhen Jean Driscoll was born in 1966, no one

expected her to grow up to be an athlete. Jean was born with spina bifida, a serious condition that affects the spine, or backbone. This condition can cause damage to the nerves and spinal cord. It can also keep the vertebrae in the backbone from forming correctly. Some children born with spina bifida die very young. Others become paralyzed.

As a child growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jean faced many difficulties. Like many people with spina bifida, she needed assistance in order to walk. She needed to wear leg braces and special shoes. The braces embarrassed Jean. She thought they looked funny, and they squeaked when she moved. Even with the braces, walking long distances was impossible. Jean’s brothers and sisters had to pull her around in a wagon. Sometimes they actually forgot to pull her back home!

As a child, Jean wore leg braces and special shoes.

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Jean often felt frustrated. When her brothers and sisters forgot her at the playground, she remembers that she could walk to the edge of the playground, even see their house, but she wasn’t able to walk all the way home. She longed to move freely like other kids. When she was nine, Jean learned to ride a bike. For a few years, the bike gave her the feeling of freedom. Then, when Jean was 14, a tragedy occurred. Jean fell off her bike, badly damaging her hip. Doctors performed a triple surgery to repair the hip socket. Jean spent nearly a year recovering, trapped in a body cast, unable to move.

When the cast finally came off, Jean received bad news from her doctors. She would need to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Jean was shattered by the news. All she wanted was to move around like other kids. Now she never would.

As a teenager, Jean went to a new high school where she met other students who used wheelchairs. One friend, Jim Ratzburg, asked her to try wheelchair sports. At first, Jean didn’t want to. How can you play sports in a wheelchair? How stupid, she thought.

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Oscar PistoriusSouth African runner Oscar Pistorius

calls himself “the fastest man on no legs.” He was born without any fibulas, or calf bones. Without these bones, Oscar could never hope to walk. When he was just 11 months old, both of his legs were amputated below the knee. As an infant, Oscar began wearing artificial legs, called prosthetics. By the time he was a year and a half old, Oscar was walking around using his prosthetics.

Growing up in Pretoria, South Africa, Oscar didn’t let his artificial legs limit him. After all, these were the only legs he had ever known. Oscar played sports as much as any other kid. By high school, water polo, tennis, and rugby were his favorites. At the age of 17, after he injured a knee in rugby, he decided to try running.

Oscar had never stepped on a track before, but from the start, his talent was easy to see. Using special running prosthetics—Oscar calls them blades—he began running in races for athletes with disabilities. Within months, Oscar was breaking world records.

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In order to run, Oscar uses a pair of j-shaped blades made of carbon fiber. These special prosthetics are made for track and field athletes. They are commonly known as “Cheetahs,” but Oscar simply calls them his “blades.”

The beginning of a race is a little difficult on a pair of blades. It can take Oscar 30 meters to get his stride, but that hasn’t slowed him down.

At the 2004 Summer Paralympics, Oscar took home many medals. He ran so fast that he found himself in a unique position for an athlete with disabilities. He was fast enough to challenge the best two-legged runners.

Because of his bladelike prosthetics, Oscar gained the nickname “Blade Runner.”

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Oscar began competing in races for able-bodied athletes. In 2005 he ran in the South African Championships. Oscar finished sixth out of all runners in the 400-meter race. In 2007, he did even better, winning the silver medal. Oscar began setting his goals even higher. He didn’t want to beat only South Africa’s best athletes. He wanted to run in the Olympic Games against the best runners in the world.

To reach his goal, Oscar began training even harder. His dream was to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. As he worked toward his dream, some runners who lost to him began to complain. They said that Oscar’s special legs gave him an advantage. They felt that Oscar’s blades made him taller than he normally would be, making it easier to take a longer stride. They thought the blades made him faster than people with two regular legs.

Some officials said they feared that by not putting limits on technological aids, all athletes would try to enhance their performance using technology.

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Oscar disagreed. In his mind, he won the races fairly. Talent and hard work were what put him on top. “These have always been my legs,” he said. “I train harder than other guys. I eat better, sleep better, and wake up thinking about athletics.”

Still, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), the group in charge of the rules for the world’s track and field events, made it hard for Oscar to run. In January 2008, they decided that Oscar’s prosthetic legs gave him an unfair advantage. They wouldn’t let him try out for the 2008 Olympics.

Many scientists and doctors disagreed with the IAAF. They believed that the “blades” didn’t give Oscar an advantage. One scientist, Robert Gailey, said “there is no science that he has an advantage, only that he is competing at a disadvantage.”

A few months later, a court agreed. The court said the IAAF had to let Oscar run, and so Oscar tried out for the South African Olympic Team. Though Oscar ran his fastest time ever in the 400 meters, he fell a few seconds short of the time that he needed.

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Oscar didn’t let the failure to qualify bother him. He went on to the 2008 Paralympic Games and won three more gold medals. He is still working toward his goal of reaching the Olympics, perhaps in 2012. In his mind, nothing can stop him.

Oscar says, “There’s nothing I can’t do that able-bodied athletes can do.” He feels that “sports remind you of your abilities rather than any disabilities as seen by the rest of the world.”

Oscar won three gold medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

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Erik WeihenmayerErik Weihenmayer remembers how it felt

to go blind. He was born with serious eye problems. These problems damaged the retina, or tissue inside the back of the eye. As a result, his eyesight became worse as he grew older. At age 13, he lost his sight completely.

Going to school was the toughest venture. There he felt helpless. In the beginning, he refused to use a cane. As a result, he couldn’t find his seat in the classroom. He had to be led through the halls. A simple trip to the bathroom was something he could no longer do alone.

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“I hated blindness,” he says. “I thought I’d be crushed by it. . . . all the adventures passing me by that I wanted to be a part of. . . . I was afraid of being swept to the sidelines and forgotten.”

When Erik could still see, he had loved sports. He played serious basketball, even though he could barely see the hoop. Nothing thrilled him more than jumping his bike off ramps. As he dealt with his blindness, sports helped bring him through the difficulties he faced.

High school wrestling helped him gain back his confidence. “I realized I could take sighted people and slam them into the mat,” he says. In grappling, feel and touch often matter more than sight. By sensing where his opponent had his weight or how Erik should shift his own body, he could win by using his upper body strength. Erik became a star, even going to the National Junior Championships.

Rock climbing became just as important. At age 16, Erik discovered the sport while at a camp for the blind. The experience was thrilling.

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Erik enjoys the challenge of rock climbing.

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He loved scrambling up steep rock walls. Each climb was like a puzzle, a problem to be solved. Where do you put your hand? Where do you put your foot? Where will this crack in the rock lead to?

In his early 20s, Erik started formal mountain climbing. He soon became a master. His strength, balance, and sense of touch made up for any lack of sight. His sense of hearing helped as well. Erik could tell by the sound an ax made when it struck ice whether it was solid or dangerously hollow. As a climber, Erik kept looking for greater challenges. When he went blind, he had lost only his sight, “not my sense of adventure.” He made several difficult climbs—Denali in Alaska, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Aconcagua in Argentina, to name just a few. Soon, like most climbers, his thoughts turned to the ultimate adventure—climbing Mount Everest.

Climbing the world’s tallest mountain wasn’t going to be easy. Many climbers fail to reach the summit. Some even die trying.

As anyone would, Erik worried about his safety. “People think because I’m blind, I don’t have as much to be afraid of, like if I can’t see

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a 2,000-ft. drop-off, I won’t be scared,” Erik says. “That’s insane. Look. Death is death, if I can see or not.”

During his journey, Erik had good reason to be scared. Nearly 90 percent of the people who attempt to climb Mt. Everest never reach the summit. Many also never make it home. It is estimated that, since 1953, at least 165 people have died trying to climb Mt. Everest.

Erik climbing Ama Dablam, the mountain next to Everest, in Nepal

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During a 13-hour trek through the Khumbu Icefall, Erik fell into a deep crevasse, a hidden gap in the rock. He dangled in the air, hanging from the rock, until his climbing partner could rescue him. He began to wonder if he’d made a mistake in attempting the climb, but determination kept him going. As one climbing partner says, “Erik is mentally one of the strongest guys you will ever meet.”

On May 25, 2001, Erik reached Mount Everest’s summit. He got on his radio and relayed the news: “We’re on the top! I can’t believe it; we’re on the top!” After hugging his teammates, he knelt down and touched the snow. He thought about when he first went blind. Back then, he would have been proud just to find a restroom by himself. Now he was standing at the very top of the world!

Erik didn’t stop after Everest. A year and a half later, he reached the top of Australia’s Mount Kosciusko. Erik had joined a rare group of people: climbers who have beaten the Seven Summits—the highest mountain on each of Earth’s continents.

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Becoming ExtraordinaryErik believes that everyone has the ability

to do extraordinary things. What they need is confidence. One person, he thinks, can help provide that to others. Since climbing Everest himself, he has led many other groups into the mountains. “Leadership is contagious,” he says. “We pass it from body to body and from life to life, and we give all the people around us the courage to do great things.”

Erik says that being able to do the things he’s done can reshape or shatter people’s ideas about what is possible and impossible.

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Now Try ThisHold a Debate

Oscar Pistorious is trying to run against two-legged runners. Some people think he should be able to run. Others think he shouldn’t.

The IAAF says Oscar’s prosthetic legs are unfair. They say that a study they conducted shows that more energy is returned to Oscar’s upper legs from his blades than would be from ankles and calf muscles and that he doesn’t require as much oxygen. This means, the IAAF feels, that Oscar doesn’t need to work as hard. They are also concerned that the blades make Oscar taller than he naturally would be, making it easier for him to take a larger stride.

Erik Weihenmayer thinks people should focus on Oscar’s heart, not on his legs. He says an athlete’s strong legs are a gift, just like Oscar’s prosthetics, “but it’s what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion.”

What do you think? With the person next to you, debate Oscar’s right to run.

Here’s How To Do It!

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1. First, draw slips from a bag. One slip should say “Oscar should run.” The other slip should say “Oscar shouldn’t run.” Each partner takes one slip.

2. Find articles about Oscar in the library or on the Internet.

3. Collect facts and expert opinions from the articles to support your position.

4. Use the evidence you collected to hold your debate in front of classmates or friends. Afterwards, discuss your opinions with the group.

Oscar’s blades: Do they give him an advantage?

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