Zoomy Zoom, Macca's and Tackers in Chairs
Race day! It still amazes me that after this long in my sport and the amount of start lines I have lined up on that I still get nervous excitement as “go fast time” rolls around. Even though I’ve been training really well and we’d already done time trials during the week, the anticipation of showing what I’m capable of is what keeps me going and pushing harder. The first ACT winter competition flew by and I snatched another “B” qualifying time. While my race time wasn’t quite as fast as my time trial times, I’m happy I’ll get another chance to show off more of my zoomy zoom progress during next month’s ACT winter competition. Stay tuned!
Unfortunately, I had to check out of the AIS accommodations that same afternoon, immediately after my race...there was a planning snafu where the reservation was off by a day. Oops! Not my fault, I swear! After a quick debrief with my coach Freddy about the race it was a quick turn-around walking back to the accommodation, packing the car and getting ready for the road trip back home. Another 8 hours of driving were ahead of me so I was thankful for having plenty of people to bother and keep me entertained on the phone between car karaoke sessions, and naturally the bag of skittles consumed as my driving snack… One skittle a kilometer seemed like a fun way to pass the trip until the reality of eating over 700 hit me and I quickly changed my strategy so as to keep my chompers. Alternatively, I may have stopped at Macca’s and consumed a cheeseburger AND a quarter pounder, because, you know, one was for lunch and one was for dinner. That’s reasonable, right?...Please don’t tell the nutritionist. Geelong welcomed me back into its embrace with windy, wet and cold conditions in what seems like a clear message that I should have stayed in Canberra...with the snow?...Maybe not… Alas, it was back to the real world, bracing myself for a packed week of work and training ahead of me.
While the blustery winter conditions are nothing to write home about; what I have enjoyed about growing up in the Geelong area is how tight-knit the region is, and the willingness to support the people who live in it. After my first few years of my racing career, I realized that I wanted to share my love of the amazingly rich world of para sport with my home community. It’s still surreal to think about how before my accident I was completely ignorant of it. Luckily, I was not alone in this desire and a group of other aspiring athletes and Paralympians and I came up with the idea of and founded Parallel Sports Inc. We felt like Geelong was lacking exposure of and support for aspiring para athletes at a grassroots level, so we turned to our community to help us develop and run our own not-for-profit inclusive sports organization. It’s been several years now since we got Parallel Sports up and running and I’m so thankful to be part of this team and community that goes above and beyond to make this dream an everyday reality. It’s hard to believe we started with just a single weekend summer sports camp all those years ago.
Today, we now offer a whole range of sports for the community, an equipment library to help aspiring athletes with the cost of the madly expensive sports chairs*, pathways from grassroots to Paralympic level sport and disability awareness programs through talks and participations in wheelchair basketball sessions.
*Seriously though, I know a pair of sports shoes aren't cheap but when you need a several thousand dollar piece of equipment just to ‘try’ a sport it's easy to see why so many people with disabilities are not participating in para sport.
This week I’m able to enjoy my favourite parts of working with Parallel Sports, inspiring children with disabilities to revel in para sport for the first time, just as I did after my accident, and educating school kids and families about these opportunities. It's always great seeing how much the kids open up during our school programs. Disability awareness and inclusion can sometimes be a daunting topic for them, so being able to get them into a basketball chair and learning skills is such a great way of breaking that awkward apprehension of “Can I ask that question or is that offensive?”. Plus, I’m always surprised and amused by some of the questions that come my way...sometimes they give me a good giggle.
On Saturdays we have our junior “Come and Try” sessions and while it’s always adorable seeing little tackers pushing the chairs around, the real heartwarming part is that they all turn up in their favourite NBA jerseys. These are kids who have been obsessed with basketball for years and until recently had no idea that they had the ability to play their favourite sport. Maybe I should pay more attention to the NBA teams so I can talk to the kids about it? I was just corrected today that apparently “the 79ers” is not an actual team... But, when I see these kids making new friends, keeping fit madly pushing up and down the court and evolving into these confident humans it really drives home all the reasons why we started Parallel Sports all those years ago.
I’m really proud of what we have created here in Geelong, as someone who was blessed by being introduced to sport and a community of like-minded people I feel like it’s my duty to spread that to every person who will stop and listen to me. If a woman didn't stop me in the street and tell me that I had nice, long arms and should try para sport like her Paralympic medalist son, I wouldn't have known about it… Thanks Kaye! My arms are totally proportionate to my body, by the way, I felt the need to check after that comment. I know the benefits from being involved in sport, whether it’s social fun games with mates or just keeping fit and healthy or competing at an elite level. I’m really excited to see where this takes me in the coming years, keep checking in to keep up with what we are up to.
My experiences this week have hit both extremes of training and racing alongside world-class athletes all the way to seeing the joy inspired by a child’s first experience in para sport and they both remind me how lucky I am to be living my dream.