The Paralympics are an elite level sporting competition for people with physical disabilities.
So it could be anything from an amputation to a spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury,
cerebral palsy, anything like that that affects your physical ability.
Each disability falls into a different class, similar to weight classes and wrestling or weight lifting or anything like that.
So like abilities compete against each other.
My category is C5, which is the least disabled.
I'm a below-elbow arm amputee and compete against other people who are missing arms
or have some type of upper body impairment or a minor foot disability.
My events are the 500 and the 3K individual pursuit on the track, which I will be competing in here at the 2012 Track World Championships.
We have 19 athletes on the US team and I want to say 40-ish countries from around the world for probably about 300 athletes.
London in August is definitely the goal.
The World Championships here are the last qualifier for countries to earn points to then expand their team size going into the games this summer.
So it's World Championships, so it's high stakes, but this is also the last event before the games.
I saw track cycling the first time in 2004 at the Athens Games.
I had won an essay contest to go to the Games as a spectator.
Saw track cycling. That was the first event that we saw.
And I thought that people were absolutely nuts to race around the Velodrome on a bike with no brakes and one gear and super skinny tires and 35, 40 miles an hour.
And naturally wanted to try it.
I had Gambrace syndrome when I was two and I was in Children's Hospital of Los Angeles for four months.
I was on a respirator for one month and then recuperating for three months after that.
I've had a lot of surgery throughout my life to fix orthopedic problems and both of my ankles are fused at 90 degrees so they don't move at all.
Which actually is somewhat helpful in cycling.
I was never allowed to play impact sports, so soccer, softball, all of that stuff was all out.
I started swimming when I was in middle school and I was on the varsity swim team and the captain of the swim team when I was in high school.
I was on the rowing team when I was in college and then I started riding bikes just for fun about six years ago.
And then last April I was invited to a development camp at the training center in Chula Vista.
And I went to the road national championships in August and I went to track nationals in September and now I qualified for the world championships for 2012.
I would love to go to London. This is the first time that I've ever competed internationally.
I'm just focused on track worlds and then we'll see where that will lead me after that.
