Jumping Through Hoops

The Paralympics are no match for real-life challenges

Photo by Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash

If you cheered on Team U.S.A. during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, there's good news! You can pick up where you left off with more adrenalin-pumping moments when the 2024 Summer Paralympics begin on August 28. To date, a half dozen athletes with Iowa connections will compete: Olivia Chambers (Northern Iowa Panthers), Matt Stutzman (Fairfield), A. J. Fitzpatrick, Cedar Rapids), Jeromie Meyer (Woodbine), Jessica Heims (Northern Iowa Panthers), and Erin Kerkhoff, (Northern Iowa Panthers). Prepare to be awestruck by their incredible talents and amazing capacity to adapt.

The word "para" is a Greek preposition defined as "beside or alongside", signifying that the Paralympics are parallel games to the Olympics. The first official Paralympics  games were held in Rome in 1960, attracting 400 athletes from 23 countries. Since 1992, the Olympics and Paralympics have been staged in the same cities and venues. The 2024 Summer Paralympics will feature 180 delegations from around the globe, with 1,500 hours of dramatic live coverage. Twenty-two sports in 23 disciplines will be showcased, including:

Archery, badminton, canoe, equestrian, Judo, power-lifting, rowing, swimming, wheelchair tennis, table tennis, triathlon, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, wheelchair fencing, and blind football.

A total of 549 gold medals are up for grabs.

Adapting to Change

In daily life, disabled individuals often are invisible, and their heroic accomplishments seldom receive recognition. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, and in the same year, a line item in the Farm Bill mandated an "Assistive Technology Program for Farmers with Disabilities". It led to the creation of the National AgrAbility Project (NAP), housed at Purdue University.

Over the years, I've met so many inspiring farmers using adaptations to continue farming. In 2016, I became a NAP Advisory Team member. Here are just a few highlights of individuals who were truly outstanding in their field:

Ryan Odens became a quadriplegic after rolling his pickup in 2000 when he was 23 years old. The Little Rock, Iowa, farmer was given little hope of walking again. He had taken over the farm just three years earlier, when his dad died suddenly from a heart attack. Odens went from a wheelchair to a walker to two crutches to one crutch with an arm brace, thanks to rehab specialists at Easter Seals Iowa's Rural Solutions and Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado. He uses electric and hydraulic lifts for his tractors and combine, as well as remote cattle gates.

Lee Kayhart lost both arms when he was entangled in a power take-off on his Addison, Vermont dairy farm in 1984. Kayhart was able to continue his operation, and as his children became able to take on more chores, he parachuted from a plane and traveled coast-to-coast in 2011 with his wife Pat on a three-wheel bike with custom controls for steering and shifting gears. Kayhart said he wanted to show other disabled individuals that adaptations could allow them to continue athletic pursuits. In 2012, the Kayharts sold their 600-head herd to their sons.

Davon Goodwin. In 2009 he joined the U.S. Army Reserve, and was unexpectedly deployed to Afghanistan. A bomb exploded beneath the truck he was driving, causing traumatic brain injury and damage to the L1 and L2 vertebrae in his lower back. Awarded a Purple Heart in 2014, Goodwin, an African-American with no farm background, was struggling to regain control of his life until he began working at a produce farm. Eventually he combined a pick-your-own operation  with commercial and retail sales near Laurinburg, North Carolina. He told me, "There are moments in time, but no moment lasts forever. You take what you can, and move on. I'm not there yet, but I'm on the right road. I don't think I'd be alive without farming. It's about a sense of purpose."

Jason Barber. In 1998 Barber experienced tunnel vision and night blindness. He was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative disease with no cure or treatment. The Tennessee farmer began using ZoomText to magnify his records and read on his computer screen. "I didn't know how big of an asset it could be--it's my primary assistive technology asset," he says. "The Voice-Over feature is a big thing – I use it to organize all the information for a certain cow, such as date of birth, weight, and vaccination history on an app called WayTag and then stick it to the back of the cow’s ear tag. He also uses it to read dosage information on his cattle's medication bottles. His wife, Melissan uses a wheelchair due to complications of spina bifada; she helps him whenever possible. Barber bales and sell square hay bales, with assistance from a retired friend, and he round bales for his 25 cattle.

There are so many others! We all know someone with a disability who has touched our lives. My cousin had polio as a child, and although she wore a metal leg brace, she earned her R.N., raised three children, and worked in hospitals. Finally, polio reoccurred, ending her efforts to remain independent. A cousin's daughter who was born with cerebral palsy became a family practitioner, and a mother of two in her mid-30s. A nephew Rick was sorting cattle on a Wyoming ranch, and in an instant his life was turned upside down in what he calls "a wreck with his horse". He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was hospitalized for over 40 days. One year later, the 42-year-old is struggling to regain his physical strength, walk without a cane, and play a guitar again with his band.

Thanks to cutting-edge assistive technology and an expanding database of resources, many Americans can stay in the game and go the distance. I call them The Overcomers.

Iowa's Paralympics Legislator

In Iowa, we're fortunate to have a former Paralympic champion: Rep. Josh Turek (D-Council Bluffs). Born with spina bifida, he represented the U.S. in four Paralympics, returning home with two golds and one bronze. He retired after a 20-year professional wheelchair basketball career. Iowa Writers' Collaborative columnist Douglas Burns featured Turek in his February 18 Iowa Mercury column.

Turek was elected to the Iowa legislature in 2022. He has many priorities, but one is removing artificial barriers for disabled Iowans. Turek knew some Iowans were confined to home for weeks or months because Iowa Medicaid required them to jump through a series of artificial hoops and barriers, including making a doctor appointment, and getting a prescription to repair their wheelchair. Earlier this year, he proposed legislation to remove this requirement. The House passed a similar "right to repair" bill, but the Senate didn't prioritize it, and missed the deadline.

However, Turek's effort led the Iowa HHS, beginning July 1, to eliminate the need for a doctor appointment and prescription. Pre-approval from a managed care organization or private insurer still creates delay.

According to Turek, under Iowa's privatized Medicare, denials for medical equipment have increased 1,000%. He estimates that Iowa has 18,000 disabled individuals on a medical equipment waiting list. In his interview with Burns, Turek said he isn't done breaking down barriers to improve the lives of disabled Iowans. This includes his Work Without Worry legislation that would increase income limits for employed people with disabilities receiving Medicaid, removing asset limits, and penalties for having a working spouse.

Disabled individuals also end up on the front lines of verbal abuse and harassment from able-bodied people. Recently a City of Des Moines employee resigned. In addition to making racist comments, he made a "joke," calling a co-worker with cerebral palsy, a "f-----ing cripple". They often face hurdles to voting, employment, and the enjoyment of public spaces. In Iowa, AEA cuts may jeopardize services to disabled children in our schools.

Medals for Crossing the Finish Line

But soon it will be time to celebrate again, watching Paralympians excel in Paris this week, as their feats are showcased against the magnificent backdrops of the Grand Palais, Paris La De Fense Arena, the Palace of Versailles, the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks. Here are just a few of the top competitors:

Oksana Masters, 35, multi-sports (14 medals)

Aaron Pike, 38, multi-sports

Tatyana McFadden, 35,  multi-sports (20 medals)

Daniel Romanchuk, wheelchair racer

Jessica Long, para swimmer (29 medals)

Ezra Frech, 19, high jump, long jump. and sprinting

Nick Mayhugh, 28, (4 medals)

So, settle back in your favorite recliner, lean into learning their backstories and getting caught up in their unique challenges. Enjoy the closed captioning. But be mindful that there's a much different world outside of the competitive arenas at the 2024 Paralympics, where its buildings are accessible, there's multisensory signage, zones for assistance dogs, and accessible electric shuttles.

And don't forget after the last medal is awarded, and the Paralympics torch is passed to Los Angeles, you don't need to wait four years to be awestruck by the accomplishments of disabled individuals. Just look around, wherever you live and work, and you'll see these everyday heroes and heroines in our midst. Their backstories are less well-known, but just as inspiring.

More than 70 million Americans live with a disability. Unlike athletes at the Paralympics games, many of our disabled neighbors, relatives, and friends are competing daily with able-bodied Americans, and the outcome often is gut-wrenching and life-shattering. But they continue to compete against the odds in a world that's less than inclusive. We need to be there for them long after the 2024 Paralympics Summer Games end, cheering them on, and going the distance to make certain the Torch’s flame for civil rights burns more brightly than ever before.

Here is a link to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Sunday Roundup, where you can get a compilation of our members’ work published the previous week.