UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

 May, 2004

BY David Harpe, SPECIAL TO THE C-J The 2004 U.S. Quad Rugby Association Championship was held in Louisville two weeks ago. The game is played with four-member teams on a basketball court, using a volleyball. BY DURELL HALL JR., THE C-J "Why does anybody do anything?" said Chad Johnson, veteran of 30 marathons. "To be the best, to see what your body can do."   BY DURELL HALL JR., THE C-J Mini Marathon winner Matt Davis said racing is "a way to keep in shape. When you feel better, it affects other areas of your life."

Wheelchair athletes are on a major roll
By TOM WHITUS

Special to The Courier-Journal

It might seem like mere semantics, but the difference means all the world to some people:

It's athletes in wheelchairs, not wheelchairs with athletes in them.

Name the sport and wheelchair athletes are competing. From basketball to rugby, tennis to skiing (water and snow), fencing to golf to road racing, the number of sports available in the Louisville area that are being adapted for wheelchair athletes is growing every day.

For that, thanks can be given to people such as Jill Farmer. She's the recreation therapy coordinator at Frazier Rehab Institute, and she knows the importance of competitive and recreational sports for wheelchair athletes.

"Just as with any athlete, chair or not, it is an enrichment of their lifestyle," Farmer said. "It's rewarding to spark that little bit of interest; their competitive edge doesn't have to change."

She added that "not everyone is about competitive activities, (so) we offer a recreational component."

One person who is very much about competitive activities is Chad Johnson, 28, a wheelchair marathoner from Corydon, Ind. He has competed in about 30 marathons, finishing 14th in Boston and winning the Meijer Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon last month.

"Why does anybody do anything?" Johnson responded when asked why he pushes himself so hard. "To be the best, to see what your body can do."

Johnson, who was paralyzed when he fell out of a tree at age 10, started competing in 2000 and hasn't slowed down. He likes the solitude and personal responsibility in a marathon.

"I don't have to wait for a team, and a lot of times in this type of sport it's more competitive because it is so individual," he said. "I strive to be the best, and I think that's possible."

Or, as Farmer would put it, Johnson loves "that competitive high — the satisfaction of participating in a sport."

JOHNSON MAY get that competitive high as an individual, but some people like being part of a team.

Travis Smith, 29, of Bowling Green, Ky., has been a quadriplegic since 1997, when an injury while swimming in the ocean left him with paralyzed legs and only limited arm and hand movement. He was in the Navy at the time, and he used his drive as a military man to work through the injury and its aftermath.

"The transition wasn't too bad," he said. "It was a life-changing experience. I was in therapy for about three months. I didn't do anything sports-related for a year; the doctors wouldn't clear me to do anything active like that."

His sport now is quad rugby. It's played on a basketball court with a volleyball. Four players on each team pass or dribble the ball downcourt and score by crossing a goal line.

"I was always into team sports," Smith said. "With quad rugby it's all upper arms. Rugby was the first thing I'd had interest in. It was a contact sport, something that I could relate to.

"I did some scuba diving, and water skiing is the big thing for me now. I do that at Barren River Lake — just recreational, no competition."

Smith has been playing rugby for six years, and three years ago he co-founded Kentucky TNT, a team that has had a good deal of success nationwide. The team has played as far away as California, and last month it finished fourth in the 2004 U.S. Quad Rugby Association Championship in Louisville.

But for Smith, sports isn't just about competition.

"The biggest thing is that sports has made it so I can drive a truck and take my chair apart," he said. "It's still good to have the competition, that sense of being able to win. There are a lot of things I go out and do. I go out and bowl. Just because I'm in a chair, that doesn't mean I can't do things."

Both Johnson and Smith suffered life-changing injuries, so their experience is different from that of Matt Davis of Bowling Green. He was born with spina bifida.

Davis, 37, works at Western Kentucky University as a coordinator of student disability services. He tried to stay ambulatory on crutches as long as possible and still uses the crutches at times, but he admits his knees aren't what they used to be.

MOTIVATED BY watching the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996, Davis got involved in road racing with the help of the Bowling Green mayor's office. Those good folks sponsored him, and his first race was the Bowling Green 10K.

In 1999 Davis won the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon in only his second year in the race. He won this year's miniMarathon only weeks after competing in the Los Angeles Marathon.

"The reason I like the road racing is that it's something you can do on your own; it's a way to keep in shape," he said. "When you feel better, it affects other areas of your life. Especially if you're in a chair, it's a lot easier to gain weight, to get out of shape."

Farmer can't agree more.

"The health benefits are unbelievable," she said, and she wasn't referring only to physical health. Activities in the chair can be a huge boost to self-esteem and overall mental health.

For Davis, who has competed in eight marathons and countless shorter races, the big picture is improvement and making it to the next race.

"There's always another race," he said. "I'm pleased with the way I've competed this year."

When he was watching the Paralympics in 1996, one of the most popular sports was fencing, and Maestro Leszeck Stawicki of Louisville was the man behind some of the best wheelchair fencers in the world.

Stawicki founded the Louisville Fencing Center and has become coach of the National Wheelchair Program and the U.S. Paralympic squad. He'll be coaching this year's team in Athens, and Louisvillian Sean Schumate is an alternate on that squad.

LOUISVILLIANS John Lachley, Robert Davis and Terry Cecil-Ramsey were world-class wheelchair fencers who competed in the 1996 Paralympics.

For Stawicki, who emigrated from Krakow, Poland, training wheelchair fencers is much like training any other fencers.

"You have to understand how to deal with it," he said. "Wheelchair fencing and regular fencing is very close. Tactical fencing is based on two different parts: footwork and blade work. In wheelchair fencing it is just blade work."

And greatness is greatness, no matter which way you compete.

"What's the difference if you are a champion?" Stawicki said.

That said, he's looking forward to training more wheelchair fencing champions.

"Recruiting is difficult," he said. "I'm looking forward to recruiting more people into wheelchair fencing."

With the number of other wheelchair-adapted sports to compete with, Stawicki might have a difficult task on his hands. Thanks to Metro Parks' Adapted Leisure programs, wheelchair basketball has a loyal following — this is basketball country, after all. The league plays every Monday from 5:30-8 p.m. at Douglass Community Center, 2305 Douglass Blvd.

Metro Parks also offers weightlifting, aqua exercise, fitness and wellness classes at sites around the city.

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