Paralympian Visits ICC to “Redefine Able”
One September morning Tricia Downing and her friend went cycling. Both of them athletes, they rode through the trails of Lookout Mountain in Denver, Colorado.
“As I rode, the only thing I could see in front of me was possibility. Because I felt like I was on top of the world. There was even a moment there where I actually felt invincible,” Downing said during a recent visit to Illinois Central College.
Downing stopped at a bar on top of the mountain to refill her and her friend’s water. There on the TV, she saw the Olympics streaming her passion: cycling.
“This is a sign from above that I’m gonna make it to this elite level of cycling!” Downing says she thought to herself.
On their way home, she dreamed of winning a gold medal in cycling.
Then in a flash, her dreams came to a halt when a car hit her bike head-on. She received a permanent injury to her spine and was paralyzed from the chest down.
Recently at ICC, students and faculty gathered in the dining hall around a small stage to listen to Downing’s story, but she shared more than just what caused her injury. She shared inspiration and gave advice to others for motivation.
She is now a Paralympian, has qualified for and competed in the World Triathlon Championships and Hawaii Ironman World Championship, and was named USA Triathlon’s Physically Challenged Athlete of the Year for 2003.
But before she went on to compete and win awards, she had to learn how to sit up.
“Sit up? Isn’t that the first thing that you do every morning when your alarm goes off?” Downing said she thought to herself, as she related her story to the ICC audience.
She was then laid down on her back by her physical therapist. Downing said she tightened the muscles in her stomach and sent the signal from her brain to her body to sit up. Nothing happened.
“What am I going to do with my life if I can’t do the most basic thing that everyone does every morning?” She told the audience she had said this to her physical therapist with tears in her eyes.
“Just because you are using a wheelchair now doesn’t mean your life is going to be different. You will still be able to do all the same things, you’re just going to have to do them a little differently.” Downing said her therapist had told her this in response to her.
She said she learned how to do basic things again, but then it was time for her to look for alternative ways to get what she wanted to achieve.
She then met her recreational therapist, who showed her how to use a racing chair, a machine used in races to propel the racer by using their upper body strength.
She pushed her chair for nearly a mile and a half in a park that had a track for people to run on.
“What do you think of the racing chair? Isn’t this so awesome?” Downing said her therapist asked.
“This is the most work I have ever done for the least return in my entire life,” she said she thought to herself.
“I don’t think I see myself doing 26.2 miles in this chair,” Downing said to the therapist.
“You will, if you work hard, do a little more every day, stay patient, and don’t give up,” the therapist responded
On her last day, her therapist brought her to the pool to learn to swim again.
A competitive swimmer since she was young, she was confident in her ability to “swim circles” around her therapist.
She was placed in the water, she took one stroke, but couldn’t take another. The weight of her body pulled her to the floor of the pool.
She was pulled up from under the water and she tried again.
The same result ensued.
“You know what? I don’t want to hear about working hard, doing a little more every day, staying patient – I give up,” Downing had said.
That was the last sports lesson she had at the hospital before being released. After being injured in September of 2000, she was released in January of 2001.
Now moved into her condo by herself, she said she had to deal with a “demon that sat square on my shoulder” as she put it.
“You know how when you’re maybe feeling a little bit down or depressed you have this demon that sits on your shoulder?” She asked the audience.
She was plagued with unwanted thoughts by this “demon”: “Your life isn’t going the way you want it to, things aren’t turning out for you, you’re going to be a failure, you’re never going to make it.”
From this experience, however, she said she realized that she had an opportunity. This opportunity was to share her skills learned as an athlete. These were skills used to help her through a variety of things: breakups, a bad grade, and her injury.
Downing shared these skills with faculty and students at ICC and encourages others to follow them, as well.
First, she asked the crowd, “Are you going to be a victim, or a warrior?” Downing explained that a victim is someone who wallows in their own self-pity and stays pessimistic. On the other hand, a warrior is someone who realizes there are other ways to reach their goal. She encourages people to be optimistic and that things can always get better
Second, she said she “learned to control the controllable”. This is when you deal with things that you can control. She shared that after being released, she began to see her wheelchair as a sport. Downing encourages others to let go of things that are uncontrollable, like her being hit by a car.
“That is wasted time, wasted energy, and wasted emotion,” she said. In her speech, she stated that this was one of the most important things that she had learned while recovering from her injury.
Downing then talked about the need for and building up a support group. These are people who were willing to offer help whenever needed.
“I had so many people around me after my injury, it was amazing,” she told the audience.
Finally, she shared the last step, “The next thing I needed to do was get out of my comfort zone.”
After being out of the hospital for nine to 10 months, she said her life started getting back to normal. She continued with her career as a teacher, continued her social life, and even got a new car that she could use her hands to drive. Of course, something was missing from her life, her competitive self.
In this hospital, she had learned about different wheelchair sports. Now equipped with her better mindset, she was ready to try sports again. At this time she had received a hand cycle she had been learning to use and gain strength with, a racing chair, and returned to the hospital to learn how to swim. She had more success with swimming this time.
She began to think about what sports she wanted to compete in and thought about the sport of triathlon. She stated that triathlon was a very popular sport in Denver, consisting of swimming, biking, and running—all in the same day, all in the same race.
Downing said she found a race an hour away from Denver and called the race director.
“And so I explained to him about the hand cycling, the racing chair, and that I learned to swim and I promised I wouldn’t drown in the race,” she told the crowd at ICC.
She continued, “He said, ‘You know, I think you can come if you want to, but you’re going to have to bring your own support system because I have no idea how to help you.”
A couple of weeks later, Downing brought five of her closest friends with her to the race in Fort Collins, Colorado to be her support system and “cheerleaders”.
When first arriving at the pool, she started to doubt if it was a good idea to be there, seeing the other racers with tans and looking fit. However, her cheerleading support group encouraged her to do the race.
Again, lining up at the edge of the pool, she began to feel nervous with the people in the bleachers watching the racers, and again her cheerleaders were there.
She said she waited for her turn, watching the other racers dive into the pool one by one, until it was eventually her turn.
“You know how sometimes when you’re trying something new and you want to just kind of dip your toe in the water to see if it’s something you want to do?” Downing said. “I didn’t have a choice, because my friends literally shoved me into the water. So I had to swim.”
She swam backstroke, up and down the pool. She swam the entire length of it until she finally hit the last wall. She said she was so excited hitting it because she had wanted to see the faces of the people in the bleachers who had intimidated her before. She said that she was hoping for some smiles, applause, maybe even a standing ovation.
The bleachers were empty. Everyone had moved on to the next race. Except for her support group who cheered for her.
She went to the transition area of the race, where racers switched to cycling. The bike rack was empty, everyone was already cycling, except for Downing.
She switched to her hand cycle and began her next race. Although the bike racks were empty, the course still had competitors on it. It was a 12-mile course with three laps, and as she began this course, other cyclists in the race began to cheer for her as well. She said that these people cheering her on encouraged her and made her think, “Yeah, I can do this!”
Slowly, however, fewer and fewer athletes were on the course. She said on her second lap there were people with mountain bikes going faster than her.
“I’m being beaten by a bunch of rookies!” she told the crowd she had thought to herself.
On her last lap, she was by herself. She said that the demon came back to sit on her shoulder. She said that it began to tell her things like, “You know, girls in wheelchairs don’t do triathlons. This is not your place to be.”
Here, Downing shared with the crowd another tip that she had learned in her races before she had gotten injured. She had learned to “only do what your body can on any given day. What you need to do is ride your own race.”
She accepted what she could not change. She was competing against bikers who could use their legs, while she could only use her arms.
“I can’t compete against somebody and their legs, but what I can do is ride my own race.”
Remembering this, she persevered through the last lap and moved on to the transition area for the next race. However, the bike racks were again empty, not because they had finished the biking race, Downing said it was because they had gone home.
She said she switched to her racing chair and began saying to herself, “Ride my own race. Ride my own race. Ride my own race.”
As she rode on, she saw another racer ahead of her.
“I saw in front of me this tired, but able-bodied runner, and I thought, ‘Dude, you’re going down.’”
She pushed forward and eventually passed him.
“Oh my gosh, I’m not in last anymore!” she said she had thought to herself.
She stated that this caused her to push harder. She then passed another runner, and then another. She passed seven runners.
She said that when she crossed the finish line, she raised her arms in victory. She said this was not because she had gotten first place, 10th place, or even 40th place. Downing celebrated crossing the finish line because she realized she was an athlete.
“Instead of seeing my wheelchair, I saw my wings.”