Just because you have a physical disability, it does not mean that your love of sports is restricted to fantasy football or sports gambling, orEverygame casino no deposit bonusgame playing on your laptop.
Many people with disabilities “take advantage of their strengths to compensate for their weaknesses.” It starts with learning about yourself, so you can understand what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are.
Here is a secret that successful people don’t want you to know: everybody has strengths and everybody has weaknesses.The ones who are successful understand that, and the ones who are not don’t understand that.
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Aaron Fotheringham
Aaron Fotheringham is also one of the most famous skaters in the world.His specialty? Wheelchair skating.Aaron Fotheringham was born with spina bifida.
Aaron Fotheringham is an extreme wheelchair athlete who performs tricks adapted from skateboarding and BMX. He competes in the Vegas Am Jam series in skate park competitions, usually against BMX riders.
He is the first person to successfully perform a backflip in a wheelchair at the age of 14, and a double backflip at the age of 18.
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He performs many other tricks in his wheelchair including 180 degree ‘aerials’, one-wheeled spins, and rail grinds. He plans to fuse the back flip with the 180 aerial into what is known as a ‘flair’.
When he was a young boy, he used crutches early on, but he has been a wheelchair user full-time since the age of eight.He would watch his brother riding his BMX at the skate park, and one day his brother told him that he should try riding his chair in the park.
Fotheringham uses a customized WCMX wheelchair designed by Box Wheelchairs, which is both lightweight and features four-wheel suspension. This enables him to perform the same sorts of tricks that skateboarders and BMXers can do, as the suspension cushions his landings.
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Fotheringham has worked with Box Designs Wheelchairs to help refine the design in real-world situations, resulting in a custom-made chair that is in his words, “pretty much indestructible”.
In 2022, he competed on America’s Got Talent: Extreme. After receiving Nikki Bella’s golden buzzer in the audition round, he advanced to the finale, and earned second place.
Rebecca Meyers
Rebecca Meyers (born November 20, 1994, in Baltimore) is a Paralympic swimmer from the United States. She won three gold and one silver medals in Rio 2016. She was also a member of the 2012 Paralympic Team, and won a silver and bronze in London. Rebecca Meyers also competed at the 2009 Summer Deaflympics which was held in Taiwan.
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Meyers has Usher syndrome and has been deaf since she was born. Since she was young she has used a cochlear implant, an electronic device that allows her to hear. Meyers is also losing her vision to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and has a Seeing Eye dog named Birdie, who helps her navigate the world.
She grew up in Baltimore, attended Notre Dame Prep, and went on to graduate from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where she studied history with a concentration in Disability Studies.
In June 2021 the US announced the 34 Paralympic swimmers who would be going to the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo. The women’s team was Meyers, Jessica Long, McKenzie Coan, Elizabeth Marks, and Mallory Weggemann. On July 20, 2021, Meyers withdrew from the Paralympics after being denied her request for a personal care assistant due to the reduced allocation of staff members amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Matt Brown (parathlete)
Matthew S. Brown, known as Matt P.F. Brown (born November 24, 1976), is currently a football and track and field coach at Idalou High School in Idalou in Lubbock County, Texas.He is also a gold and bronze winner in the Parapan American Games. Brown’s left leg was amputated above the knee because of an accidental industrial explosion on December 20, 2005.
In September 2007, Brown won a gold medal in the discus, having set a record throw of 154 feet 9 inches (47.17 m), and a bronze in the shot put at the 2007 Parapan American Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He also competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing, where he finished fourth in the men’s discus.
On July 12, 2011, Brown was suspended for three months by the Paralympic team after a United States Anti-Doping Agency test revealed the presence of a marijuana metabolite in his body. He was also made ineligible to participate in official track and field events for a calendar year. He tested positive for marijuana again in a June 2012 test and was again suspended for twelve months.
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Who knows what his sports career might have been if he did not waste his talents on using marijuana?Yes, marijuana is legal in several states in the US, but that does not mean that it will not affect your ability to do sports.
Amy Bockerstette
Amy Bockerstette (born October 15, 1998) is an American competitive amateur golfer and disabilities advocate with Down syndrome. She is the first person with Down syndrome to both receive an athletic scholarship to attend college and also to compete in a national collegiate championship.
In high school, Bockerstette became the first person with Down syndrome to play in the Arizona High School Girls Golf Division I State Championship, where she competed as both a junior and senior. In 2017, she was honored at the AZCentral.com Sports Awards with the Best Moment of the Year Award for Arizona High School Sports.
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As a representative of Special Olympics Arizona, Bockerstette played in the LPGA Bank of Hope Founders Cup Pro-Am with professional golfers Sarah Jane Smith and Gerina Piller in March 2017. She was named by AZCentral.com as one of the “Ten Most Intriguing High School Athletes of 2017”.
In May 2018, Bockerstette signed a letter of intent to play golf at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. She studied dance at PVCC and played on a full golf scholarship, completing her college career in May 2022. She was afforded two one-year golf scholarship extensions due to COVID-19.
Bockerstette is a Special Olympics athlete in golf, swimming and volleyball and plays Challenger baseball. She also plays piano.
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Bockerstette and her family launched a 501 nonprofit corporation, the I GOT THIS Foundation, at her 21st birthday party in October 2019. The foundation’s mission is to promote golf instruction and playing opportunities for people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.
On April 29, 2022, Bockerstette was named as one of the 48 Most Intriguing Women of Arizona by 48 Arizona Women and the Arizona Historical Society. She is featured in a coffee table book entitled: Arizona’s 48 Most Intriguing Women—A New Decade, telling each woman’s story in words and photos. Honorees were selected from 15 cities across Arizona.
On June 6-9, 2022, Bockerstette competed at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando Florida in the Level 5 category, 18 holes individual golf competition, at Orange National Golf Center, where she won a Silver medal.
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Bockerstette continues to represent the I Got This Foundation, as a speaker and by attending various charity golf tournaments and fundraising events, where she advocates for inclusion and for people with disabilities.
Summary
These 4 individuals are examples of people who “took advantage of their strengths” so they could fulfill their dreams.So the next time you try to tell yourself, “I cannot do X” just read these famous athlete’s stories (and many more like them).Then find your own strength, so you can take advantage of it to be the best you can be.
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FAQs
Did Pablo Escobar marry a 15 year old? ›
In March 1976, the 26-year-old Escobar married María Victoria Henao, who was 15. The relationship was discouraged by the Henao family, who considered Escobar socially inferior; the pair eloped. They had two children: Juan Pablo (now Sebastián Marroquín) and Manuela.
Who was Limon in real life? ›Jhon Burges (died 1993) also known as El Limón was Pablo Escobar's chauffeur, and last loyal sicario. Burges was born in Envigado, and lived at the Barrio Pablo Escobar with his family. He worked as a taxi driver, and would ferry around prostitutes from a brothel during his free time.
Who is Yesenia Pablo Escobar? ›Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal (TV Series 2012) - Diana Neira as Yesenia - IMDb.
What did Pablo Escobar do to his son? ›What happened to Tata Escobar? Once Pablo died, Maria and her children Manuela and Juan Pablo sought refuge in Argentina to escape the wrath of Pablo's fellow drug lords. Argentina granted the family asylum and allowed them to change their identity. Tata became Maria Isabel Santos Caballero.
How many times was Pablo Escobar shot? ›On December 2, 1993, police traced a phone call between Escobar and his son, Juan Pablo, to a safe house in the Los Pinos neighborhood of Medellín. Colombian special forces swooped in. Escobar was killed at the house, felled by three bullets as he stood on its red tiled roof.
Who was the girl Limon killed? ›When a white girl named Louise Frost was found dead in Limon on November 8, a search began for possible suspects. Newspapers reported that the Porter family had left Limon for Denver a few days after the girl was found dead, and white authorities focused suspicions on them.
Why did Limon stay with Escobar? ›Limón pledges his allegiance to Escobar because it's what he believes to be right, but it's that alliance that ends up destroying him. Limón started his arc as a relatively law-abiding and innocent character, something that is incredibly rare for Narcos.
What happened to Escobar's lawyer? ›De Greiff died on July 19, 2018, at the age of 89.
Did Pablo Escobar wife get his money? ›Escobar's wife and son moved to Argentina and took on new identities after Escobar's death in 1993. The cartel's fortunes were estimated to be more than $1 billion dollars at the time. Escobar's wife and son claim they received none of the money from the cartel's operations.
Who got Pablo Escobar caught? ›
Javier Pena
Working with an elite Colombian Task Force, Murphy and Pena were responsible for the downfall and capture of the world's first narco-terrorist, the infamous drug cartel leader, Pablo Escobar, following his brutal reign as head of the Medellin Cartel in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Was Pablo Escobar's money found on a farm? In 2015, Jose Mariena Cartolos found a sum of $600,000,000 in several big blue containers as he was digging trenches for irrigation on his family land. The money was believed to be part of the drug lord's fortune. Cartolos surrendered the money to the authorities.
What did Pablo Escobar do to keep his daughter warm? ›In addition, while his family was on the run in 1992–93, Escobar reportedly burned $2 million in order to keep his daughter warm.
Did Pablo Escobar treat his family well? ›Escobar gave as extremely to his family as he took away from his enemies. He showered his wife and children with unconditional love and ostentatious luxury. He also cultivated a Robin Hood image by donating money and housing to Medellin, Colombia's, poor.
Does the Escobar family still exist? ›The Escobar family has lived in Argentina since the 1990s. The late drug lord's widow changed her name to María Isabel Santos Caballero and Escobar's son goes by Juan Sebastián Marroquín Santos.
What did Pablo Escobar's wife do after he died? ›Where is Escobar's wife now? Maria, who is currently a grandmother, is currently living in Buenos Aires. She relocated after the death of her husband, Pablo. She was forced to continually flee from place to place to keep her family safe, often changing her name to Maria Isabel Santos Caballero.
What did Pablo Escobar do for his daughter? › How did Pablo Escobar get caught? ›On December 2, 1993, Escobar's exact location was determined using electronic, directional-finding equipment. Escobar and his bodyguard attempted to escape by running across the roofs of adjoining houses, but the Colombian National Police shot and killed them.
Who is the biggest drug lord now? ›After the arrest of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and his son Ovidio Guzmán López, the cartel is now headed by old-school leader Ismael Zambada García (aka El Mayo) and Guzmán's other sons, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán and Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar.
Where is Pablo Escobar's grave? ›Who is the biggest drug lord ever? ›
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (December 1, 1949 – December 2, 1993) was a Colombian drug overlord. Often referred to as the "World's Greatest Outlaw", Escobar was perhaps the most elusive cocaine trafficker to have ever existed. He is considered the 'King of Cocaine' and is known as the lord of all drug lords.
Who were the two kids that killed the maid in narcos? ›The real story of the murder
Little Carlos (4), Raúl Salinas (5) and Gustavo Rodolfo Zapata (8) had murdered the housekeeper. This event occurred when the three were playing war and decided to shoot Manuela, the 12-year-old teenager who worked in the house, with a 22-caliber rifle.
Griselda Blanco Restrepo (February 14, 1943 – September 3, 2012), known as the Black Widow, was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel, and in the Miami-based cocaine drug trade and underworld, during the 1970s through the early 2000s. She was shot dead on September 3, 2012, aged 69.
Who killed Blackie girlfriend narcos? ›But after Los Pepes kill Blackie's pregnant girlfriend and her father, Murphy has no such illusions: “Shit's getting real.” The murder of Blackie's girlfriend puts more pressure on President Gaviria and Ambassador Crosby, who have practiced a deliberate indifference to Los Pepes and their methods.
Who was most loyal to Pablo Escobar? ›Jhon Burges (died 1993) also known as El Limón was Pablo Escobar's chauffeur, and last loyal sicario. Burges was born in Envigado, and lived at the Barrio Pablo Escobar with his family.
Did Pablo Escobar have an illegitimate son? ›While researching the book, Roberto learnt that a dozen or so people around the world claim to be illegitimate children of Escobar. Officially, Pablo only had two, Sebastián Marroquín, 43, an architect, and daughter Manuela, 36. They reportedly both live in Argentina.
Did Pablo Escobar hide with his father? ›When Escobar eventually handed himself into police in 1991, he escaped from his self-built “ La Catedral” prison just a year later, where Juan details life on the run as a teen after he and his family to fleed with his dad. “My father asked us to hide with him because we couldn't be safe outside,” he said.
Why did Pablo Escobar's wife stay? ›But I wasn't able to leave him, not just because of love but also out of fear, powerlessness and uncertainty about what would become of my children and me without him. I was even afraid that the most dangerous man in Colombia might hurt me if I left him.
Was any of Pablo Escobar's money found? ›Former DEA agent behind Escobar capture
A nephew of drug lord Pablo Escobar's said he has found $25 million in cash hidden in the wall of one of the infamous criminal's homes.
Marroquin has a lucrative career as an author and licensed architect. Being the son of drug lord Pablo Escobar, who oversaw the Medellín Cartel in Colombia during the 1970s and 1980s, brought him to the attention of the media.
Did Pablo Escobar give money to the poor? ›
In all, Escobar is thought to be responsible for some 4,000 deaths. But his humble roots made him popular among some Colombians whose support he cultivated by giving out large amounts of cash and investing in poor neighbourhoods in Medellín.
How much money did Pablo Escobar bury? ›Pablo Escobar buried gold and wads of cash from $50billion drug fortune in secret locations - then shot men who did it to keep locations secret.
Was Pablo Escobar's wife loyal? ›' They had two children together, Juan Pablo and Manuela. While she remained a faithful wife, Pablo had plenty of mistresses during their 17-year marriage. Once he built the infamous Hacienda Napoles, he even had a bachelor suite installed so he could meet his many mistresses on the property.
Does the Medellín Cartel still exist? ›The cartel operated from 1976 to 1993 in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. At the height of its operations, the Medellín Cartel smuggled multiple tons of cocaine each week into countries around the world and brought in up more than US$188 million daily in drug profits.
Where was Pablo Escobar hiding? ›Located on the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, Casa Malca allegedly holds a historic connection to the famous Colombian drug lord. According to a press release from the hotel, it is suspected that Escobar used the former mansion as a secret location to arrange private meetings and deals with drug traffickers.
Who owns Pablo Escobar's estate? ›After Escobar was shot and killed by Colombian police in 1993, his family entered a legal struggle with the Colombian government over the property. The government prevailed, and the neglected property is now managed by the Municipality of Puerto Triunfo.
Who turned on Pablo Escobar? ›Meanwhile, Don Berna turned on Escobar after El Patrón killed his boss, Fernando Galeano.
Why did Pablo Escobar burn money for his daughter? ›1992–93, Escobar reportedly burned $2 million in order. to keep his daughter warm.
Did Pablo Escobar wear jeans? ›Normally, he was a fan of white sneakers. He had 100 pairs of white sneakers and a pair of jeans. The only pair he wore to work were white sneakers; he had a whole room full of them." Pablo Escobar's early life in Colombia was marked by a thirst for criminality.
How many homes did Pablo Escobar own? ›In the late 1980s, Colombian authorities seized some of Escobar's enormous fleet, including 142 planes, 20 helicopters, 32 yachts, and 141 homes and offices.
How did Escobar's family leave Colombia? ›
Prosecutor General Gustavo de Greiff had provided bodyguards for Escobar's relatives, which the drug lord demanded as a condition for his surrender. But because he did not give himself up, De Greiff told the family last week he would withdraw the bodyguards. That prompted the family to leave the country.
Is JJ Popeye still alive? › At what age did Pablo Escobar marry? ›In 1976, when he was 26, Escobar married 15-year-old Maria Victoria Henao. She was so young that before marrying her, Escobar had to get a special dispensation from the bishop, which was obtainable for a fee, according to Bowden. They were married until Escobar's death.
How old was Pablo Escobar wife when they met? ›I met Pablo when I was just 12 years old and he was 23. He was the first and only love of my life. I married him in the church, believing that marriage vows are to be honoured.
How old was Pablo Escobar's wife when she gave birth? ›Maria did not care, she loved her husband and bet everything on him. A year later at the age of 16, she gave birth to their first child, Juan Pablo Escobar.
Who is Colombia biggest drug lord? ›As the cocaine industry grew in Colombia—thanks in part to its proximity to Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, major growers of coca, from which cocaine is derived—Escobar became involved in drug smuggling. In the mid-1970s he helped found the crime organization that later became known as the Medellín cartel.
What did Pablo Escobar called his wife? ›According to her brother Juan Pablo (who still goes by the name Sebastián Marroquín), Manuela has attempted to take her own life. And now, she reportedly lives with her brother and his wife for her own health and safety.
Who did Pablo Escobar love most? ›Maria Victoia Henao chose to marry Pablo Escobar just a year later, in 1976, despite the anguish of the forced abortion. “It was a night of unforgettable love that remains tattooed on my skin as one of the happiest moments of my life,” she said of their wedding night.
How old was Pablo Escobar when he had his first child? ›In truth, in 1965 he was just a sixteen-year-old lad who had fallen in love with Maria Luisa Sendoya and had a child with her.
Did Pablo Escobar have a niece named Maria? ›
Nick Brady is in Colombia with his brother when he meets Maria. She is the niece of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. As both Nick and Maria see how dangerous life can be around her uncle Pablo the pair decide to leave Colombia along with Nick's brother, wife and child.
Who inherited Pablo Escobar's money? ›By the time of his death, Pablo Escobar's net worth was estimated to be about $30 billion. He amassed his fortune from drug dealing. After his demise, most of the money was acquired by the government, the Medellin Drug Cartel members, and his rivals.
Did Pablo Escobar have 2 wives? ›