ONE OF ATLANTA'S OTHER HEROES : VAN NUYS SWIMMER EARNS TWO MEDALS IN PARALYMPICS.Byline: Rochelle Kaplan Daily News Staff Writer Overshadowed by athletes with more famous names, swimmer Karen Norris returned from Atlanta last week with two medals - a gold and a silver. The fact that the Van Nuys resident won the medals at the Paralympics is something Norris wants to make clear. Extremely proud of her accomplishments as a disabled athlete, Norris wants people to know that she trains just as hard as the able-bodied competitors in the Olympic Games Olympic games, premier athletic meeting of ancient Greece, and, in modern times, series of international sports contests. The Olympics of Ancient Greece Although records cannot verify games earlier than 776 B.C. . ``People are always confusing con·fuse v. con·fused, con·fus·ing, con·fus·es v.tr. 1. a. To cause to be unable to think with clarity or act with intelligence or understanding; throw off. b. us with the Special Olympics Special Olympics International sports program for people with intellectual disability. It provides year-round training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type summer and winter sports for participants. ,'' said Norris, 31, who won a gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize in the 400 medley med·ley n. pl. med·leys 1. An often jumbled assortment; a mixture: "That night he dreamed he was traveling in a foreign country, only it seemed to be a medley of all the countries he'd ever been to and relay and a silver in the 100-meter backstroke. ``Not that there's anything wrong with (that organization). But, people always think that there's no work involved to compete in the Paralympics. And that's what we're fighting to overcome.'' Norris, whose left leg was amputated below the knee at the age of 11 because of a rare form of nerve cancer, began swimming competitively when she was 7. Although she dropped out of swimming for 17 years, taking up competitive downhill skiing instead, her heart was always with her first sport. It was her ski coach who first told her about the Paralympics in 1992 and encouraged her to try out for the Barcelona games. ``When he told me the times I'd need to qualify for the games,'' Norris said, ``I said, `Gosh, I think I could swim those times' and I was off to Barcelona. ``I came home with a gold and a bronze medal.'' Calling herself ``something of a natural athlete,'' Norris doesn't limit her activities to swimming and skiing. She loves running and cycling - for which she has specially designed prosthetics pros·thet·ics n. The branch of medicine or surgery that deals with the production and application of artificial body parts. pros - and looks forward to some day competing in a triathlon triathlon, athletic event made up of three contests. Since the 1970s the term has come to mean especially a race combining swimming, bicycling, and running. A notable example is Hawaii's Ironman Triathlon, held since 1978, which features a 2. . Because there are no triathlons - yet - for the disabled, Norris is considering competing in running and cycling separately. While she plans to continue swimming in Masters meets, she has yet to decide if she'll participate in the next Paralympics in Sydney. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Karen Norris, whose left leg was amputated below theknee, won a gold in the 400 medley relay and a silver in the 100 backstroke. Ron Luxemburg / Special to the Daily News |
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