After I lost my leg I swam for phyiscal therapy. After 18 months I fluked up and made the Paralympic swim team in 1996 and found myself immersed in a world of disability that I never knew existed.
Atlanta, Georgia was where both the Olympic and Paralympic games would take place with the latter taking place just two weeks after the former. I did not know what to expect at the Paralympic games because for most of my life I had tried to make the Olympic Team. So, I began to learn as much as I could about these games.
I discovered that the Paralympic games derived there name from the word “parallel” and not “paraplegic” like I initially thought and are for people with physical disabilities and visual impairments and not for person with cognitive disabilities like the Special Olympics. They are also the second largest sporting event in the world behind the Olympics.
A series of test events were taking place in Atlanta to ensure that all the sport systems were ready to go for the games.
I remember going to one of these test events very vividly. Well, it was not the event that I remember but rather the incident prior to us getting to the event. The incident blew my mind and changed the way I saw my new world of disability.
About 50 of my new teammates who had made the Paralympic Team and who were members of the track and field team, the wheelchair basketball team and the swim team were at the gate waiting area at Dulles International airport. We were waiting for the flight to board to Atlanta.
As I sat there I took a long hard look at the people (my teammates) who were around me. I looked at my new teammates. All of them had something that society thought, and I for that matter, was wrong with them. They were all “disabled.”
I thought to myself was I really now part of this group? “I mean really, I am a four time all-American; I have twice been to the Olympic trials; I was the fastest hurdler in the Army and ranked as high as 9th in the country. I am not handicapped, I am not crippled. I am not disabled. No, I’m normal. I don’t belong with this team!
Yet, here I was.
I was coming face to face with a prejudice that I never even knew existed in me. I was beginning to feel ashamed of being identified with this population of “special” people. I found myself tolerating my teammates and not appreciating them.
As I struggled with these thoughts I knew that my teammates did not want to be tolerated they wanted to be appreciated and accepted for who they were on their own merits.
As I was lost in my thoughts I heard the gate agent make the boarding announcement. She said, “Will all the people that have a physical disability or need extra time and assistance to walk down the jet bridge please get up and board the aircraft at this time?”
So 50 of us got up and began to walk down this jet bridge!
I’m no dummy and I quickly realized that this was a “perk.”
I took my seat around the 14th row. When I was settled, I looked up and noticed that one of the Wheelchair basketball players was coming on the plane. He stood about 6’6″. Not so unique you might think. But in this case he was a bilateral amputee. The great thing about being a bilateral amputee is you can be 6’6″ but when you take your artificial legs off, which he did, you can also be 4’3″.
As he took his seat at the 7th row his teammates helped place his artificial legs in the overhead bin!
I had never seen anything like this before! But I get it….more leg room.
The flight attendant asked him if he was ok. To which he replied in the affirmative. She turned her back to him and went back to the front of the cabin to greet all the AB’s (abled-bodied) people, on the plane.
When her back was turned, his teammates quickly grabbed him (since he was now 4 feet 3 inches tall) and placed him in the overhead bin right next to his legs!
I was blown away!
Then his teammates closed the bin door!
So now I’m very intrigued about what’s going to happen next.
The passengers were now boarding the flight. Some frequent flyers were filing past the 7th row to take their seats while other were placing their bags in first class bins. I focused my attention on one man who looked very important because he was on his cell phone and had an oversized (won’t fit under the seat in front of you) briefcase with him and he stopped at the 7th row!
I am on pins and needles about what’s going to take place, and the rest of my teammates are quite as church mice! They are acting like they have done this 1000 times before.
The unsuspecting man reaches up for the latch to open the bin door. He quickly pulls the latch open and the egg shell white door swings up toward the ceiling of the cabin.
When the door opens up the basketball player pops out and quickly flies’ down to his seat! That man was so startled he jumped from the 7th row back to the 14th row where I was sitting! All of his papers from his briefcase were all over the plane!
I told him, “Man, your seat’s up there with that guy!”
I laughed just as hard as any of my other teammates. It was then that I realized that people with disabilities are just like anyone else. And, the one with the disability was me because I was the one not thinking about my new group with dignity and respect. I was not thinking about their capabilities. I was the one holding myself back by my ignorance.
That day I was inspired. That inspiration caused action in my life.
And at the end of the day, that is what everyone wants.
So here’s to changing our perspective and looking at life with a different lens. Do more than tolerate respect and appreciate others!
Great story with a well-delivered message … as always. Thanks, John.