Star hoopster scores, then takes on new hurdles.Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard Landing on her feet after a 70-foot fall from a tree, Susie Grimes Grimes is a surname, that is believed to be of a Scandinavian decent and may refer to
She was instantly paralyzed par·a·lyze tr.v. par·a·lyzed, par·a·lyz·ing, par·a·lyz·es 1. To affect with paralysis; cause to be paralytic. 2. To make unable to move or act: paralyzed by fear. : back broken and ankles shattered, and yet, still awake. A two-hour ride out of the woods that day in 1978 left her a lot of time to think. "I had to grasp some strong belief that I would be OK," she said. "I had to dig deep, focus and believe in my inner strength." The lifelong athlete - who played on the women's freshmen basketball team at the University of Oregon The University of Oregon is a public university located in Eugene, Oregon. The university was founded in 1876, graduating its first class two years later. The University of Oregon is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. - drew upon the endurance that kept her going during tight games, telling herself she would find a way to become active again. And did she ever. Now 52, Grimes has spent the better part of the past three decades as a world-class wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is a sport played primarily by people with disabilities. In some countries such as Canada, Australia and England, able-bodied athletes are allowed to compete alongside other athletes on mixed teams. player. Before retiring from the sport in 1999, her accomplishments included a gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize from the 1998 Seoul Paralympics, a silver medal from the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics and two national championships. Her imprint on the sport was further cemented Saturday when she became the seventh woman inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) is comprised of 181 wheelchair basketball teams within twenty-two conferences. Founded in 1948, the NWBA today consists of men's, women's, intercollegiate, and youth teams throughout the United States of America and Canada. Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. "Her signature is definitely left on the game," said Alicia Hays, who has played on several teams with Grimes since the early 1980s. "She was one of those few people who really transformed the game from recreation to this elite level." Before her fall, Grimes - a firm believer in women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and - had left the UO to make a name for herself in traditionally male jobs, such as forestry and smoke-jumping. Instead, the budding field of women's wheelchair sports became a new trail to blaze. "Shooting a three-point basket sitting down - that's hard to do," Grimes said. "It puts a picture of strength in someone's mind rather than inability." Shortly after her accident, she was practicing six days a week for several hours and helped found the Willamalane Shooting Stars, the first wheelchair team in the Eugene area. With many surgeries and rehabilitation sessions, Grimes slowly regained the ability to walk using crutches, but a wheelchair remains her vehicle for athletics. Soon, her passion and skill for basketball brought her to San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden to play for the Bay Area Meteorites Meteorites See also astronomy. aerolithology the science of aerolites, whether meteoric stones or meteorites. Also called aerolitics. astrolithology the study of meteorites. Also called meteoritics. . From there, she joined national and international teams. Grimes often played a dual role of coach for her team, organizing trips and hotel stays. Finding accommodations for a large group of women in wheelchairs was a struggle before Congress' approval of the Americans with Disabilities Act Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. in 1990, she said. People, however, were often the bigger obstacle. "There were 12 women in wheelchairs - my team - and a woman asks me, `Are you all from the same home?' ' Grimes said, recalling an episode in the San Francisco airport. "We're not institutionalized in·sti·tu·tion·al·ize tr.v. in·sti·tu·tion·al·ized, in·sti·tu·tion·al·iz·ing, in·sti·tu·tion·al·iz·es 1. a. To make into, treat as, or give the character of an institution to. b. because we're in wheelchairs." With such incidents fresh in her mind, Grimes began traveling the world with the U.S. national team - an experience that piqued her curiosity about disabilities in other cultures. She moved back to the area in 1993 to work for Mobility International USA, a Eugene-based advocacy group for people with disabilities. She toured countries such as Bosnia, Croatia and Zambia, teaching people with disabilities to play wheelchair basketball, soccer, rugby and tennis. "Disabled people are the most disenfranchised in developing countries," she said. "It pulled everything together for me: my love of humanity and being able to work for other people using my leadership skills for athletics." Locally, Grimes combined a degree from San Francisco State University • • [ in adaptive physical education with her affection for horses by co-founding the Ride-Able riding therapy program. Her efforts for the disabled community played a significant role in her induction into the wheelchair basketball hall of fame, the selection committee's chairman, Joe Luceri, said. "She had a really good take-charge attitude out on the basketball court," Luceri said before Saturday's ceremony in Lexington, Ky., which Grimes attended. "She (has shown) leadership qualities by giving back to the game and giving back to people with disabilities." While she misses the sport, and calls her induction "a huge honor," Grimes said a shoulder injury and age prevent her from going back to the court. She has retired from Mobility International and plays host to seven horses on her farm off Crow Road. Her own rehabilitation - which includes a total replacement of her right ankle and pins in her left ankle - is ongoing, she said. She also is tackling several new ventures, including a stained glass stained glass, in general, windows made of colored glass. To a large extent, the name is a misnomer, for staining is only one of the methods of coloring employed, and the best medieval glass made little use of it. art business, featuring the work of her stepfather, Bob Metcalf. Grimes' sights are also set on another medal in the Paralympics. This time she hopes to compete in dressage dressage (French; “training”) Equestrian sport involving the execution of precision movements by a trained horse in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider. , an equestrian event involving elaborate equine footwork, by 2012. "Riding is physically good for me, but it's also very demanding," she said of the hours she puts in five days a week. "But at this point in my life, starting new things reminds me that I have a very high standard and I can achieve it." SUSIE GRIMES Who: Inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame Age: 52 Number of Paralympic medals: Two, a gold from Seoul in 1998 and a silver from Barcelona in 1992 Next goal: Make it to the 2012 Paralympics in London as an equestrian Full house: Shares a horse farm on Crow Road with her partner, Penelope Girard, mother, stepfather, roommate, two cats, a dog and seven horses Underwater pastime: Certified SCUBA diver Favorite movie: "Forrest Gump" Most recently read books: "Snow" by Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born on June 7, 1952 in Istanbul), generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist and professor of comparative literature at Columbia University.[1] Pamuk is often regarded as a post-modern writer. and "The Iliad" by Homer |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion