thank you so where was I
typical guy right we don’t like to do
all our medical issues so so one day I’m
dealing with these issues I’ve got like
I don’t know what’s going on like like
this and I’m fleet I’m legs and it just
keeps getting a little bit worse so what
do I do one day I go out and ride my
motorcycle alright because it’s a lot of
fun beautiful day just cruising along
you know and and just just having fun
there’s a great day and so all of a
sudden my something jerks like grabs my
leg and just jerks it back off the bike
yeah yeah so it’s kind like this I’m
riding along and all of a sudden just oh
you know and I look down and my legs
just doing this just dragging the ground
if you’ve ever ridden a motorcycle it’s
a bad spot to be in but guess what I
couldn’t even feel my legs
neither one and quite told my wife this
entirely
I shouldn’t have been riding the bike I
couldn’t feel the pegs I couldn’t feel
the gas tank so literally my leg just
fell off and it took something pulling
it on the ground before I actually
realized what happened
so anyway eventually at that point what
do you do when you almost died now you
go to the doctor
typical guys ok pre-dance we’ll go you
talked me into it fine I’m going
so I initially got diagnosed with this
disease called transverse myelitis and
what’s ended up after that got diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis so if you don’t
know what that is it’s basically an
incurable brain disease if you don’t
know what that is is basically an
incurable brain disease I’m just kidding
that it is this is for the nerves that
the mighty kind of attacks and nerves
and kind of eats the it’s like a you’ve
got a frayed extension cord it’s the
same thing on your nerves and so I have
a lot of that is true my brain in my
spinal cord and that’s where the
numbness came from so when you get
diagnosed with the disease in near 29 30
years old what do you do you really
Despres
you go try to quit your job
you think life’s over you know you know
life so ever gonna be in a wheelchair
forever you know I have nothing more to
give in this world so let’s just quit
that’s what I did almost for almost a
year I kind of viewed the world like
this from the couch laying down and one
day I realized I kind of watch this
great movie and where they’re going
around they said bring out your dad and
I was like they’re coming for me but I
was like no I’m not dead yet and I
realized I had this brand-new baby at
the same time she uses to just a few
months old and she’s my youngest she’s a
little baby and the only girl and I
realized you know what in about 10 or 15
years I’m gonna have to run and fire a
shotgun at the same time I’ve got to get
off his couch I’m not going with you
right don’t take me and so I kind of
hung onto that and I realized you know
my wife no longer had her husband my
kids didn’t have their father my job
really didn’t have me because I just
kind of went when I want at that point
hey what every day and so I realized
I’ve got to get back in this game of
life so I go to my doctor doctor I want
to do a triathlon to get better my
doctors like you do that so if you don’t
think about multiple sclerosis or MS you
don’t necessarily go do a triathlon for
therapy right I said I did I said I’m
gonna go and I had a long background in
bicycle riding and road racing and
mountain bike race and did a lot of BMX
as a child and so that was kind of my
background so that’s what I knew and I
wanted to go do a triathlon so went out
on my run my first run I mean I started
out go out there at my driveway and
that’s Jeremy I mean I ran all the way
down to the far end of the street and it
about killed me fast I mean our first
run I’m still dealing with this this
kind of new disease I was only the
second house so I didn’t really go very
far
but I was like okay I could do it I’m
gonna crawl back home and go back to bed
right that was kind of my idea but I was
kind of stubborn grew up in Alabama a
lot of us our house I gonna get up the
next day or maybe the day after that
what’s that recover and I’m gonna run in
the street again so I kept doing it I
kept practicing that and doing that and
I learned to I never swam before you
know if you know anything about
triathlon you swim you bicycle and you
run so swimming for me was getting in
the water and not drowning I didn’t
realize we actually had to go somewhere
okay so my first time swimming I had a
panic attack if you ever had a panic
attack you tend to inhale a lot which if
you’re underwater that’s a bad idea and
my coach is like but I practiced for
about a year it took almost a year where
I did my first little kind of mini
triathlon
and it’s an Internet race you know what
happened nothing really
I just finished like it was just but
it’s so such a revelation to me because
you know I practiced I did this I kind
of stuck with it and I was starting to
feel better
I was working more I was more energetic
I hadn’t you know it’s being more of a
father and a husband again and so I was
kind of living my life and I just kind
of so I did so I got introduced a sport
called paratriathlon you may heard the
Paralympics right okay so I got involved
with an emerging sport paratriathlon
which is triathlon for people with
disabilities and so I kept practicing
and getting better and we’d go to some
races and won my first World
Championships gives my Honolulu terrible
venue I mean the water is like blue like
you can actually see the fish I was
scared but I’m out there my friend Matt
the day before when you got to go kind
of warm up and swim so I we go swim and
to the shore and that’s kind of behind
me so I’ll get it out of the water
I forgot to say man is a below-knee
amputee motors are wrecked and so
picture this I turn around and I see
Matt coming out of the water so I’m
being always really the only person ever
hung out with other people like like
this whatever just grab like Gordon and
having a lot of fun there’s also fun
watching the woman and children and the
lifeguards were so yeah we left but
there’s this guy named Cedric I’m gonna
tell you about him a little bit more
because senator was from France
and he I mean like so bad at the finish
that came back and watched me finish I
was like I will never beat this guy ever
but I kept racing in the years went by
and all of a sudden I realized you know
what we’re we’re not there because we’re
disabled we’re there because we want to
kick somebody’s rear in in a triathlon
if you’re gonna do a race you want to
win right that’s that’s one of the
points and that’s what it became and
that’s how everybody is people are
humans we want to compete we want to
have this fun experience and win you
know just like everybody else want to do
so people with disabilities have special
needs we’re not really special I’m a
human just like you people disabilities
are humans they want to compete and
a good time but it made a lot of good
friends said it from France great guy
our friend James from Great Britain
Sebastian for Germany and all these
people had various disabilities and we
would just beat on each other on the
race course and then go have fun
afterwards but I can tell you this other
story about Cedric this one year down
the road we were in Spain doing a race
and said repeat me by like 35 seconds
maybe it’s 36 seconds so angry at grudge
about this and so what I do did I go and
cry but I go home and for the next year
I trained and like I’m gonna see him
next year the World Championships and
that was my goal it was this K each
grudge match and have you seen a guy in
tights they weigh like 150 pounds it’s
kind of funny when you have a cage match
so I go in our race Center the next year
at the World Championships guess what I
beat him I’ve beat him pretty bad right
I was so far ahead one of the guys from
Team USA when I went by I thought he
said slow down David slow down but I was
in such a zone I guess you could say
that I said go slow down and I was so
excited so I’m standing up there on the
first place podium kind of like that and
said heard something right and there’s
another first comma left second third
place it’s where we are France
his home country there playing the
national anthem omec this is great it’s
great revenge it was so worth that
remember that just like in there over
there just like you know like I’m on
your territory and just gave it to you
but the sad thing is about people with
disabilities most of them are inactive
what’s one of the top leading killers in
our country today inactivity okay
inactivity kills and most people end up
dying from inactivity sadly especially
people do you think people with
disabilities like MS or or several
policies everything’s they’re gonna die
from the disease but they don’t they die
from inactivity isn’t that sad
and I don’t want everybody to be a
triathlete but everybody needs to do
something that’s physically active and
we somehow made physical activity for
people disabilities inspirational who
walked around yesterday who went for
like a mile walk
well did you video it put it on the on
the internet what why not
because this part of the life right it’s
physical activity so why you know when
someone has a disability and they do
something like everybody else do we
think it’s as unique or rare or
different we should expect that I
expected Center to train more I didn’t
care about his disability I wanted him
to train it and this is have this grudge
match so people with disabilities are
just like everyone else they want to
compete they want to have fun they want
to be active and but let me tell you
about this sport called wheelchair
basketball and that’s when I rolled up
this is this looks like a butcher right
but it’s not just a sport here’s a piece
of sporting equipment if you’re gonna
run you’re gonna wear your running shoes
you’re gonna play football you’re gonna
wear shoulder pads play butcher
basketball what you need a sports here
okay it doesn’t mean you can’t walk it
just means s your equipment and
triathlon I had a bicycle that’s what
you need so same thing
what’s your basketball let me give you
some put things in perspective
what’s your box ball is one of the
largest Paralympic adaptive sports in
the country but listen there’s only 50
high school teams in the country 50
probably within a 50-mile radius of
where I stand there’s probably more than
50 high school-aged teams right let’s
say we got to change that we got to turn
that around at some point every one of
us in here are gonna meet disability
personally if you’ve broken a leg or an
arm or maybe you’ve injured your eye
something happens you had a surgery and
you you maybe have a temporary
disability all of us are gonna meet that
someday and it kind of brings us close
to the idea of hey I’ve got to make some
adjustments because you know even if you
become permanently disabled you still
end up with Ian’s activity results of
inactivity so the idea is we all need to
be more active so what are you gonna do
and why are you gonna do it at the
beginning of my story I talked about my
daughter
you know and she’s 15 now I’m not
training as hard as I used to be but
it’s coming right I’m gonna have to run
some more
what’s your reason what motivates you to
need to be more active when you look at
inactivity we realize how bad it is you
need to find that that Zoey but sir
that’s your name right you take that and
hold it tight and go this is gonna
motivate me to be active if I want to
walk around the block and then maybe
I’ll get halfway around or 3/4 the way
around that’s okay do it somethings
better than nothing
doesn’t matter how little with this but
what will you do and why will you do it
so remember that why when you’re out
there going around the block going to
ride your bicycle or you’re gonna come
play butcher basketball with us highly
recommend it
just hold on that motivation to realize
this you’re worth it everybody’s worried
that people with disabilities are worth
it you’re worth it because you have a
family people with disabilities have a
family and they deserve to have that
high quality of life and that longer
life right thank you
you
typical guy right we don’t like to do
all our medical issues so so one day I’m
dealing with these issues I’ve got like
I don’t know what’s going on like like
this and I’m fleet I’m legs and it just
keeps getting a little bit worse so what
do I do one day I go out and ride my
motorcycle alright because it’s a lot of
fun beautiful day just cruising along
you know and and just just having fun
there’s a great day and so all of a
sudden my something jerks like grabs my
leg and just jerks it back off the bike
yeah yeah so it’s kind like this I’m
riding along and all of a sudden just oh
you know and I look down and my legs
just doing this just dragging the ground
if you’ve ever ridden a motorcycle it’s
a bad spot to be in but guess what I
couldn’t even feel my legs
neither one and quite told my wife this
entirely
I shouldn’t have been riding the bike I
couldn’t feel the pegs I couldn’t feel
the gas tank so literally my leg just
fell off and it took something pulling
it on the ground before I actually
realized what happened
so anyway eventually at that point what
do you do when you almost died now you
go to the doctor
typical guys ok pre-dance we’ll go you
talked me into it fine I’m going
so I initially got diagnosed with this
disease called transverse myelitis and
what’s ended up after that got diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis so if you don’t
know what that is it’s basically an
incurable brain disease if you don’t
know what that is is basically an
incurable brain disease I’m just kidding
that it is this is for the nerves that
the mighty kind of attacks and nerves
and kind of eats the it’s like a you’ve
got a frayed extension cord it’s the
same thing on your nerves and so I have
a lot of that is true my brain in my
spinal cord and that’s where the
numbness came from so when you get
diagnosed with the disease in near 29 30
years old what do you do you really
Despres
you go try to quit your job
you think life’s over you know you know
life so ever gonna be in a wheelchair
forever you know I have nothing more to
give in this world so let’s just quit
that’s what I did almost for almost a
year I kind of viewed the world like
this from the couch laying down and one
day I realized I kind of watch this
great movie and where they’re going
around they said bring out your dad and
I was like they’re coming for me but I
was like no I’m not dead yet and I
realized I had this brand-new baby at
the same time she uses to just a few
months old and she’s my youngest she’s a
little baby and the only girl and I
realized you know what in about 10 or 15
years I’m gonna have to run and fire a
shotgun at the same time I’ve got to get
off his couch I’m not going with you
right don’t take me and so I kind of
hung onto that and I realized you know
my wife no longer had her husband my
kids didn’t have their father my job
really didn’t have me because I just
kind of went when I want at that point
hey what every day and so I realized
I’ve got to get back in this game of
life so I go to my doctor doctor I want
to do a triathlon to get better my
doctors like you do that so if you don’t
think about multiple sclerosis or MS you
don’t necessarily go do a triathlon for
therapy right I said I did I said I’m
gonna go and I had a long background in
bicycle riding and road racing and
mountain bike race and did a lot of BMX
as a child and so that was kind of my
background so that’s what I knew and I
wanted to go do a triathlon so went out
on my run my first run I mean I started
out go out there at my driveway and
that’s Jeremy I mean I ran all the way
down to the far end of the street and it
about killed me fast I mean our first
run I’m still dealing with this this
kind of new disease I was only the
second house so I didn’t really go very
far
but I was like okay I could do it I’m
gonna crawl back home and go back to bed
right that was kind of my idea but I was
kind of stubborn grew up in Alabama a
lot of us our house I gonna get up the
next day or maybe the day after that
what’s that recover and I’m gonna run in
the street again so I kept doing it I
kept practicing that and doing that and
I learned to I never swam before you
know if you know anything about
triathlon you swim you bicycle and you
run so swimming for me was getting in
the water and not drowning I didn’t
realize we actually had to go somewhere
okay so my first time swimming I had a
panic attack if you ever had a panic
attack you tend to inhale a lot which if
you’re underwater that’s a bad idea and
my coach is like but I practiced for
about a year it took almost a year where
I did my first little kind of mini
triathlon
and it’s an Internet race you know what
happened nothing really
I just finished like it was just but
it’s so such a revelation to me because
you know I practiced I did this I kind
of stuck with it and I was starting to
feel better
I was working more I was more energetic
I hadn’t you know it’s being more of a
father and a husband again and so I was
kind of living my life and I just kind
of so I did so I got introduced a sport
called paratriathlon you may heard the
Paralympics right okay so I got involved
with an emerging sport paratriathlon
which is triathlon for people with
disabilities and so I kept practicing
and getting better and we’d go to some
races and won my first World
Championships gives my Honolulu terrible
venue I mean the water is like blue like
you can actually see the fish I was
scared but I’m out there my friend Matt
the day before when you got to go kind
of warm up and swim so I we go swim and
to the shore and that’s kind of behind
me so I’ll get it out of the water
I forgot to say man is a below-knee
amputee motors are wrecked and so
picture this I turn around and I see
Matt coming out of the water so I’m
being always really the only person ever
hung out with other people like like
this whatever just grab like Gordon and
having a lot of fun there’s also fun
watching the woman and children and the
lifeguards were so yeah we left but
there’s this guy named Cedric I’m gonna
tell you about him a little bit more
because senator was from France
and he I mean like so bad at the finish
that came back and watched me finish I
was like I will never beat this guy ever
but I kept racing in the years went by
and all of a sudden I realized you know
what we’re we’re not there because we’re
disabled we’re there because we want to
kick somebody’s rear in in a triathlon
if you’re gonna do a race you want to
win right that’s that’s one of the
points and that’s what it became and
that’s how everybody is people are
humans we want to compete we want to
have this fun experience and win you
know just like everybody else want to do
so people with disabilities have special
needs we’re not really special I’m a
human just like you people disabilities
are humans they want to compete and
a good time but it made a lot of good
friends said it from France great guy
our friend James from Great Britain
Sebastian for Germany and all these
people had various disabilities and we
would just beat on each other on the
race course and then go have fun
afterwards but I can tell you this other
story about Cedric this one year down
the road we were in Spain doing a race
and said repeat me by like 35 seconds
maybe it’s 36 seconds so angry at grudge
about this and so what I do did I go and
cry but I go home and for the next year
I trained and like I’m gonna see him
next year the World Championships and
that was my goal it was this K each
grudge match and have you seen a guy in
tights they weigh like 150 pounds it’s
kind of funny when you have a cage match
so I go in our race Center the next year
at the World Championships guess what I
beat him I’ve beat him pretty bad right
I was so far ahead one of the guys from
Team USA when I went by I thought he
said slow down David slow down but I was
in such a zone I guess you could say
that I said go slow down and I was so
excited so I’m standing up there on the
first place podium kind of like that and
said heard something right and there’s
another first comma left second third
place it’s where we are France
his home country there playing the
national anthem omec this is great it’s
great revenge it was so worth that
remember that just like in there over
there just like you know like I’m on
your territory and just gave it to you
but the sad thing is about people with
disabilities most of them are inactive
what’s one of the top leading killers in
our country today inactivity okay
inactivity kills and most people end up
dying from inactivity sadly especially
people do you think people with
disabilities like MS or or several
policies everything’s they’re gonna die
from the disease but they don’t they die
from inactivity isn’t that sad
and I don’t want everybody to be a
triathlete but everybody needs to do
something that’s physically active and
we somehow made physical activity for
people disabilities inspirational who
walked around yesterday who went for
like a mile walk
well did you video it put it on the on
the internet what why not
because this part of the life right it’s
physical activity so why you know when
someone has a disability and they do
something like everybody else do we
think it’s as unique or rare or
different we should expect that I
expected Center to train more I didn’t
care about his disability I wanted him
to train it and this is have this grudge
match so people with disabilities are
just like everyone else they want to
compete they want to have fun they want
to be active and but let me tell you
about this sport called wheelchair
basketball and that’s when I rolled up
this is this looks like a butcher right
but it’s not just a sport here’s a piece
of sporting equipment if you’re gonna
run you’re gonna wear your running shoes
you’re gonna play football you’re gonna
wear shoulder pads play butcher
basketball what you need a sports here
okay it doesn’t mean you can’t walk it
just means s your equipment and
triathlon I had a bicycle that’s what
you need so same thing
what’s your basketball let me give you
some put things in perspective
what’s your box ball is one of the
largest Paralympic adaptive sports in
the country but listen there’s only 50
high school teams in the country 50
probably within a 50-mile radius of
where I stand there’s probably more than
50 high school-aged teams right let’s
say we got to change that we got to turn
that around at some point every one of
us in here are gonna meet disability
personally if you’ve broken a leg or an
arm or maybe you’ve injured your eye
something happens you had a surgery and
you you maybe have a temporary
disability all of us are gonna meet that
someday and it kind of brings us close
to the idea of hey I’ve got to make some
adjustments because you know even if you
become permanently disabled you still
end up with Ian’s activity results of
inactivity so the idea is we all need to
be more active so what are you gonna do
and why are you gonna do it at the
beginning of my story I talked about my
daughter
you know and she’s 15 now I’m not
training as hard as I used to be but
it’s coming right I’m gonna have to run
some more
what’s your reason what motivates you to
need to be more active when you look at
inactivity we realize how bad it is you
need to find that that Zoey but sir
that’s your name right you take that and
hold it tight and go this is gonna
motivate me to be active if I want to
walk around the block and then maybe
I’ll get halfway around or 3/4 the way
around that’s okay do it somethings
better than nothing
doesn’t matter how little with this but
what will you do and why will you do it
so remember that why when you’re out
there going around the block going to
ride your bicycle or you’re gonna come
play butcher basketball with us highly
recommend it
just hold on that motivation to realize
this you’re worth it everybody’s worried
that people with disabilities are worth
it you’re worth it because you have a
family people with disabilities have a
family and they deserve to have that
high quality of life and that longer
life right thank you
you
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