There are few better examples of bouncing back from life’s difficulties than the athletes competing in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro through Sunday.
There are few better examples of bouncing back from life’s difficulties than the athletes competing in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro through Sunday.
There is U.S. swimmer Brad Snyder, who lost his vision when an IED exploded near him as he patrolled with a Navy SEAL unit in 2011 in Afghanistan. A former captain of the Naval Academy swimming team, he found solace in the pool and won two gold medals at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
“I didn’t like that everyone was so distraught and so messed up (after his injury),” Snyder told The Washington Post. “I’m used to having a positive impact on people. Swimming, in the beginning, was a way to turn that on its head.”
Australian rower Erik Horrie was 7 years old when his parents dropped him off at an orphanage. At 21, he was involved in a head-on crash and was told he would never walk again. He hasn’t, but he became an elite wheelchair basketball player, a silver medalist in 2012 in the single sculls and, most important, a youth counselor.
Joe Berenyi of Aurora, Ill., lost his right arm and severely injured his knee in a factory accident in 1994. Now, he is the top Paralympic cyclist in the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” There are more than 4,350 athletes competing in Rio who have not given into life’s disappointments.
The word “hero” gets used loosely these days. It actually applies to Paralympic athletes.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette