Sports : Racing

Basketball    Racing    Paralympics

I excelled by far the most in wheelchair track. I raced the first year in the juniors, and swept Regionals, and did extremely well in Cupertino, CA at the nationals. I did well enough that our Texas association awarded me a brand new Top End racing chair (about $1600) so that I could compete well the next year in the adult ranks.

I didn't let them down. In 1990 I broke the National Record in the 100m at Regionals with a time of 15.8s . From this feat, and my performance at Nationals in Rhode Island, I was selected to be on the Paralympic Development Team, and travel to Stoke-Mandeville, England that summer for the World Wheelchair Games.

At the World Games, we had a great staff and a great time. I could always count on our trainer for a good pre-race warm-up.

A lot happened and I experienced things I may never see again. But, the best thing happened when I won the "King of the Straight" race, an open class 100m sprint which closes out the track events of the World Games. It is very prestigious in the wheelchair racing arena to win this race.

I even got my picture on the first page of the article covering the games in Sports N Spokes, a wheelchair sports magazine the equivalent of Sports Illustrated for the disabled population.

Of course, I've always had terrific support from my friends. They are part of what made it all worthwhile.

The next year, I took the same path: racing Regionals, Nationals in New York, and the World Games in England. This is the 100m Regional race. Cisco Jeter almost beat me at the line, but I pulled it out for a win.

This is the 100m race in Long Island. I came in third. The lanes are from 1 to 7 (unidentified, Jim Martinson, Greg Speed, Craig Blanchette, Michael Hoe, Frank Epperson, Tom Foran, and Monte Zmuda.

While in New York, I got a chance to visit Manhattan. In fact, the biggest feat to me was that I drove myself and two other friends through the unbelievable maze of NY traffic. Move over taxi-drivers!

We got to visit the Statue of Liberty and got a private tour of the Central Park area from Faith Seldon. Faith is a friend I met in England the year before. She had been there taking pictures for Sports 'n Spokes.

In 1992 I got to travel to Sacramento, CA for the Paralympic Training Camp. The final Paralympic Team had not yet been selected. To be sure most of us would end up on the team, but not all. It was paramount that we show our best and improve the most we could. We were treated to top notch training techniques.

In this picture I was running a VO₂ max test. They tax your body to the maximum and see how your Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide levels vary. Needless to say I was just a bit tired after this.

Once again in 1992 I had to run through the paces of Regionals and Nationals. At Nationals in Salt Lake City, Utah, the final word came, I had made the team. Well, there wasn't much time to make the final preparations for the trip to Barcelona, Spain in August. I had to keep up my training schedule and hope for the best.

Basketball    Racing    Paralympics